Bakri-Busnach affair

The Bakri-Busnach affair (French: L'affaire Bakri-Busnach) is the name of a commercial–political conflict between France and Algeria in the early 19th century; it centered on France's obligations to a commercial company owned by the Algerian Jewish families of Bakri and Busnach (Bekri and Bouchnaq). The affair is considered one of the causes of the French invasion of Algeria in 1830.

Background

During the 17th century, Jewish immigrants from Livorno, Italy, arrived in northern Algeria. These immigrants, who were the descendants of deportees from Spain, settled in North Africa as traders, in search of economic opportunities. Soon they became a significant factor in the international trade of Algerian cities. They provided important financial and commercial services to the Dey (the local ruler of the Ottoman Empire), and some of them were appointed over the years to serve as the "early" mediator between the Algerian Jewish community and the government. Two of the senior families from Livorno in Algeria were the Bakri family and the Busnach family. The two joined forces in the late 18th century and established an economic company that was dominant in the export of goods from Algeria to Europe, and in particular in the export of food (mainly wheat) from Algeria to France, among other things to meet the needs of revolutionary France and other trade goods predominantly foodstuffs for the needs of the Napoleonic army.

During the 1780s and 90s, due to the growing needs of France during its conquests, France accumulated huge debts of millions of francs to the Bakri-Busnach company. The company financed its operations by borrowing from Algeria's Dey, so that France's debts to the Bakri-Busnach household were in fact debts to the Algerian ruler, and the affair became an ongoing economic conflict between the two countries, unfolding throughout the first three decades of the 19th century.