Rebuilding Oran

After 1792, the regency of Algiers invited Jews and Muslims to settle in Oran, opened Oran to the interior, and reopened the Iberian peninsula to products shipped from Oran. As a result, many of the late medieval commercial links discussed in the last chapter were renewed, with Oran increasingly seeing ships arrive from Iberian, European, and other North African ports. Drawing on commercial records of and consular notes from the years before the conquest, this chapter argues that late Ottoman Oran was well integrated into the economic life of the western Mediterranean and showed signs of growth. This runs counter to a colonial historiography that emphasized its pre-colonial marginality and insignificance. Jewish merchants were key to this small port city’s commerce and society.