The period after 1839 is known as the Tanzimat (restructuring) era. The significance of this era is that the initiative for modernization came from government officials with the compliance of the sultan. Economically, the Tanzimat, which marked the beginning of one of the most important turning points of Turkish-Ottoman history, has been intensively discussed after its proclamation in 1839. The second half of the Ottoman nineteenth century observed clear “Eurocentric Business Enterprises” in Ottoman economic and commercial life, consisting mostly of railway projects, as European centred commercial relations within international markets expanded. Reforms and changes in the commercial law system after the Tanzimat saw an increase in market efficiency of Levantine merchants in Ottoman domestic and foreign trade. Among these Levantine merchants, who were effective in Ottoman trade life, one the Hanson family, of English origin, attracted attention with their commercial relations and economic activities. Accordingly, Charles Simpson Hanson (1803-1874) who came to Istanbul for the first time in 1825 and settled for the purpose of commerce, along with his son Henry James Hanson (1838-1935), who was born in Istanbul, together engaged in several commercial fields namely finance, railway construction, imports and exports. Due to their wide range of business interests, the Hanson Family and their company became prominent among all the Levantine merchants that played a key role in 19th century Ottoman trade. This presentation examines different business practices within which Levantine merchants were involved in order to understand how they used Ottoman economic institutions as businessmen between the years 1839 and 1880. It aims to answer broad questions about the Hanson Family’s role in Ottoman domestic and foreign trade by using primary sources in the Ottoman Archive, the British National Archives and Oxford University Saint Anthony’s College Middle East Centre Archive. It will additionally draw from English and Turkish publications belonging to aforementioned period. These business manners which were applied by the Hanson Company shed light upon the activities of Levantine Merchants in the Ottoman Empire and their connections with statesmen through business partnerships after the Tanzimat Era. The Purpose and Questions In the field of economic history and the history of economic growth or development, there are some stereotypical questions that are frequently under consideration. At the macro level, it can be shown that the most important question is: Why are some countries or regions richer than others? In the field of business and commercial history, the questions are under the influence of more specific themes. The questions are mostly oriented towards the micro level such as firms, merchants, organization types and so on. Examining the changes in the commercial activities in accordance with financial activities of the British merchants as a foreign merchant in the Ottoman territory on the basis of private records of Hanson family can be shown main aim of this paper. In this paper, business activities of Hanson family will be dealt with by combining two questions from the general to the specific. First, with reference to nature of business history theory, biography of firms and their actors occur this paper’s general subjects. As a general question of this paper is: Which partnerships or co-operations of Hanson family affected the commercial-financial activities in the Ottoman Empire? Second, according to the Hanson Company’s records, we know that the commercial activities of Hanson Company and their private initiatives as bill broking in financial markets played some role in the interaction between finance and trade. In this context, the second question of this work is: Which institutions were used by Hansons in the financialcommercial merkets? How did they do these initiatives in financial sector? That is why, this paper can contribute some details for the understanding of interaction between trade and finance in the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth century. Method, Historiography and Sources Regarding the methodology of this research, commercial and financial activities and new institutional process method is mainly preferred. In this study, Hanson Family collection as private records have been examine and some secondary sources which are also concerned the commercial and financial activities od merchants in the Ottoman Empire were used. By the help of these records and secondary sources, the method of institutional process analysis combined with existing literature. In the historiography, beyond the general researches on the Ottoman economic system, in contrast, researches into British merchants, families and their operations relating to private companies in the Ottoman Empire are limited. Before the end of the sixteenth century, Ottoman and British political and economic relations had started with the establishment of the Levant Company. Although we know that a limited number of British merchants tried to do business without recourse and had permission to trade from Ottomans, it can be argued that commercial relations began with the Levant Company’s operations in the Ottoman territory certainly. Although the Levant Company was founded as a private corporation (named joint-stock and chartered company) by British merchants; it was under controlled by Queen Elizabeth I’s petition. This information points out the importance of publications related to the story of British merchants, their legal status in the Ottoman Empire, and history of the Levant Company for understanding the development of private cooperation in the Levant. However, only a limited number of studies about business enterprise in the Levant based on private records related to the companies of British merchants or families have been published in the existing literature. Therefore, we will try to examine the existing literature in order to find clues about private enterprise or initiatives of partnerships, and merchant-agency institutions. Also, it requires us to evaluate researches about commerce-trade structure or the trading conditions of the British and Ottoman Empires. Especially for the eighteenth century, Maurits Boogert’s works shed light on the commercial activities of European merchants in the Ottoman territory and port cities. Contrary to the nineteenth century, capitulations (ahdnames) did not cause disadvantages to the Ottoman guilds, merchants and markets. According to Boogert’s book, Kapitülasyonlar ve Osmanlı Hukuk Sistemi 18. Yüzyılda Kadılar, Konsoloslar, Beratlılar, capitulations given to European merchants by Ottoman authority helped the regulation of commercial relations before the nineteenth century. Listing the questions of Boogert in his book is assumed as a starting point to see the conditions of foreign merchants in the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century in particular. His most important question is “Were Western communities in the Ottoman Empire part of the Ottoman legal system, or separate from it somehow?” His researches will help to evaluate the British merchants’ status and track the evolution of commercial instruments as economic institutions. Apart from commercial activities of Levant Company before the nineteenth century, for the interaction between financial and commercial operations, we need to trace conditions of nineteenth century in the Ottoman capital. This description helps us to evaluate the ordinary financial institutions and to understand correctly the structure of developments in finance-trade interaction process. Besides, in the broad sense of this historiography, in this paper, business history of Hanson family will be dealt with in the nineteenth century when economic activity was based on interaction between commerce and finance, the merchant as an actor and institutions as a commitment, kinship-friendship, and family tie. This study uses various primary records from the Oxford University-St Antony’s College Middle East Centre, The National Archives (UK), the British Library, and Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (BOA). There are also published secondary resources related to the merchants, ‘beratli’ merchants, and Ottoman financialization. My sources comprise Henry James Hanson Collection from Oxford University associated with some anecdotes from Henry James Hanson’s life in Istanbul and his business operations, Bank letterbooks from Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi and the Levant Company correspondence. Other sources include bills of exchange, and name list of brokers’ reference to merchants’ companies and how big their operations were. A major source is the Henry James Hanson Collection with the reference code GB165-0135. This collection is located at Oxford University-St Anthony’s College Middle East Centre’s Archive library. It contains ‘Microfilm printout’ (some pages faint) of a manuscript autobiography in three volumes which is approximately 700 pages in total by Henry James Hanson which gives details of his ancestry, his father Charles Simpson Hanson’s life in Istanbul and his own memories, including some of the Crimean War. In that collection, the volumes were enriched with newspaper cuttings, family and scene photos, a few watercolours and a family tree with the coat of arms and a pedigree stretching back to the 13th century. Discussions and Results The long-distance trade between British traders and the Ottoman Empire occurs both through an institutions system and actors in historical context. Analysing the scope and structure of the trading and its links with the strategy of companies or the operations of foreign merchants in the long distance Ottoman-European trade is required to evaluate support networks such as a friendship, kinship and family ties. Furthermore, we must also take into account ignore the trends in the world economy in order to note the place of commercial activities which effected financial activities in the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century between British traders and Ottomans. By British and Ottoman merchants’ business activities in the Levant trade, it is easily argued that the Levant Company was the primary actor in the commercial activities between the Ottoman Empire and British merchants after its establishment in 1582. The Levant Company was a reformatted and combined version of the Turkey Company and Venice Company which had established a monopoly of trade in the Levant seas. Only company members had the right (ahdnames or petitions from the Ottoman Sultan) to trade in Ottoman territory. Among these Levantine merchants, who were effective in Ottoman trade life operating under certain regulations called Capitulations (Ahdnames) in the Cyprus, Smyrna and Constantinople, the Hanson family, of English origin, attracted attention with their commercial relations and financial activities. Accordingly, Charles Simpson Hanson (1803-1874), who came to Istanbul for the first time in 1825 and settled for the purpose of commerce, along with his son, Henry James Hanson (1838-1935), who was born in Istanbul-Tarabya, together engaged in several commercial fields namely finance, railway construction, imports and exports. Due to their wide range of business interests, the Hanson Family and their company became prominent among all the Levantine merchants that played a key role in 19th century Ottoman trade.When Hanson as a member of the British Levant Company came to Istanbul, Sir Stratford Canning was the British Ambassador (during 1825-1828). In 1826, Sultan Mahmud II organised a new force after the pattern of European armies and he intended to proscribe the Janissaries. This term exceedingly showed political uncertainty and economic instability situations. Therefore, it can be asserted that political conditions affected the currency system of the Ottoman State and the ‘kaime’ (banknotes) prices negatively. This currency system included the kind of money which had different measures and fineness and which were also available in circulation. In the post-reform period, about 36 coins were circulated in the market. This number is remarkable in terms of revealing the complexity of the currency system. This complicated structure in the Ottoman currency system produced the problem of an unfavourable equilibrium exchange rate that emerged due to the foreign trade volume which increased with the Baltalimanı Treaty. In the period following the Imperial Edict of Reorganization, Hansons are seen to make business rather in the financial markets. That the reputation of C. S. Hanson gained after his coming to Istanbul as a banker, rather than a merchant is an indicator of this. The news appeared in the newspapers after his son’s decease with the heading “Mr. C.S. Hanson the well-known Banker who arrived in Turkey at the beginning of last century” that shows Hanson as a banker can be shown as an evidence of this fact. Mentioning the bill broking activity performed by C.S. Hanson in the Ottoman markets before the fund support that Hansons provided railway constructions in Ottoman lands with shall be chronologically more adequate. Hanson’s general business before commencing the railway constructions used to be bill broking. Thus, as can be traced from the Bill of Exchange Minutebook of Dersaadet Bank, which is the first bank opened with the permission of the Ottoman administration in 1849, they can be told to have involved in bill broking commissioning. The expansion of commercial activities or sector in the Ottoman Empire effected the financial sector after the mid of the nineteenth century. There were a monetary problems or monetary system in the Ottoman lands. That is why, it stimulated the business strategies, financial activities and emergence of the new financial institutions in Constantinople in that period.