? Manipulation, financial embezzlement and sedition... How did the two Jews, Bakri and Bouchenak, tamper with French-Algerian relations
The occupation of Algeria is "a Napoleonic idea, as the French historian Georges Hardy describes it. But the bad internal conditions in France, in addition to its military defeat in Europe in the early nineteenth century, postponed the implementation of its project, which came with "internal Algerian Jewish aid", through the businessmen Bakri and Boushnak. The two countries, who contributed to the tension of the diplomatic atmosphere between the two countries to the point of direct confrontation, played a malicious role by the French consul Duval, so she resolved to launch her campaign against Algeria since 1827, under the pretext of "insulting France", following the incident of "the famous screen of flies".
? Who ar Bakri aned Bushnak
The two families trace their origins back to Livorna, Italy, and they settled in Algeria in the late eighteenth century. The Naftali Bushnak family came to the country around 1723, and the Bakri family in 1770. According to Saadallah Abu al-Qasim in his book “Lectures on the Modern History of Algeria and the Beginnings of the Occupation.”
Samuel Ettinger, in his book "The Jews in the Islamic Countries," mentions that the beginnings of the two families were humble, as they lived in poverty and narrow conditions. As for Bushnak, he worked as a small merchant seeking to secure his livelihood, before his trade grew and expanded with the support of the two rabbis, “Samah Duran and Ya’qub Shalabi Shekto,” and the other matter that raised the family’s destiny, the relationship that brought Bushnak together with Bey Al-Titari Mustafa Al-Zanaji (1775-1795). ), who became Bey of Constantine, Ettinger recalls.
Then the two families worked in trade between Algeria and Livorna, and they remained independent until the end of the eighties of the eighteenth century, before they were brought together by chance and their lives changed forever. It was the intermarriage bond that strengthened the commercial partnership between them, and its first name was “Salmon Cohen and His Brothers,” and then its name was changed to “Bakri and Boushnak Brothers,” according to Al-Zubaidi Al-Arabi in his book “Foreign Trade of the Algerian East.”
Brothers Bakri and Bushnak
According to Hanifi Halayli, in his book “Algerian-European Relations and the End of the Eyalet 1815-1830”, the founding of the company was on November 14, 1793, during the reign of Dey Hassan, and what proved the foundations of the company, that Naftali became in 1791, the leader of the Jewish community in Algeria In addition to being an advisor to Mustafa Al-Waznaji, who will become the bey of Constantine.
Bakri and Bouchenak knew how to take advantage of bad relations well. When Algeria seized French ships or property in return for delaying its debts, they would obtain part of it. When Algeria transferred the ownership of French institutions to the English in 1807, Yacoub Bakri acquired part of it in Qol and Jijel.
The company began to be active with the power of money, cunning, and political influence, and it imported haberdashery and other European products into the Algerian interior, and it exports agricultural and handicraft products that it buys at low prices from Algerian Muslims and sells them at double prices in foreign markets, which allowed it to hoard a huge fortune, and always speak to Hanifi.
The Bakri and Boushnak brothers exchanged the process of investing influence. Then he was promoted to the rank of bey over Constantine, and the latter became a prisoner of his grace, and owed him allegiance, as Al-Arabi Al-Zubaidi mentions in his book “Foreign Trade in the Algerian East.”
As for Bakri, he was concerned with commercial affairs that paved the way for an almost complete Jewish domination of power in Algeria, thanks to the information they provided to the midwives regarding the affairs of the deanship at home and abroad, and the precious gifts and financial aid they gave them, which they distributed, and following the method of deception with customs officials, and manipulating the market for goods Benefiting from the corruption of some influential men in power, according to Al-Zubaidi always.
The greatest success of the company was the acquisition of the grain trade with France, after the concession was withdrawn from the Royal African Company on January 17, 1794, and, consequently, the air was completely clear for Bakri and Bushnak, with the support of the French side by the French Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice Talleyrand. , who admitted Jewish mediation in the matter of supplying France with its wheat needs, according to Hanifi in the previous reference, and this acquisition was also a prelude to the issue of Jewish debts that stifled relations between the two parties later.
Jewish debt
Algeria took a noble position from France following the outbreak of the French Revolution. It abolished the restrictions imposed on the export of grain, and allowed the National Agency for Africa, which replaced the Royal French Company, to supervise French institutions in Algeria. Not only that, but more than once, it lent the French government money Necessary to buy grain,” says Mohamed Khair Fares in his book “The Modern History of Algeria from the Ottoman Conquest to the French Occupation.”
With the entry of the Jews, Bakri and Boushnak, who had “great influence in the government of the Dey, and monopolized two-thirds of Algeria’s trade,” and their acquisition of the grain trade with France, for their account and the account of the Dey, who was ignorant of the malicious methods they were using, as “they were selling grain at outrageous prices, and they were lenient in The period of payment because their debts were inflating due to the large interests, an extraordinary inflation,” the words of Faris always.
The French government was condoning these actions because of the financial crisis it was going through, and the Jews were trading in the spoils of pirates and selling wheat to the English in Gibraltar, which infuriated the French, who were procrastinating in paying the pretext of dealing with the English. In their book International Politics in the Arab East, Emile Khoury and Adel Ismail mention what Eugene Delacroix wrote: "By keeping the money owed to the Jews, we will prevent them from neglecting our interests, and we will force them to be more careful in their proper cooperation with the English."
In order for the Jews to secure their money, they cleverly transferred this money from “a personal debt to a government debt”, after they convinced my parents, who were indebted to him, that they “could not pay unless the French government paid them,” in accordance with the advice of then French Foreign Minister Talleyrand. (Allied with them), who raised the issue of the Jewish debt, and asked his colleague, the Minister of Finance, to "show the best possible intentions" towards Bakri and Bushnak, and to consider the issue "a state issue and not a personal issue", according to Fares in the previous reference.
The brothers Bakri and Boushnak exchanged the process of investing influence.
To support his position, Talleyrand asked Bakri to ask the Dey to write to Napoleon Bonaparte in this regard. Accordingly, came the 1801 treaty, which stipulated the obligation to pay the debts and restore the credit to the French institutions that had been confiscated in 1798, and the debts were estimated at seven million francs, of which the Jews succeeded in obtaining four million. According to Fares in the previous reference, he says: "The credit for this success is due to Talleyrand's decisive support, and to the intervention of the Dey, who was ignorant of the negotiations taking place in Paris, and who believed that most of the matter would be in his favour." But the Jews did not pay the Dai anything of the money they received.
Algeria and France deceived together
Algerian-French relations worsened during the imperial era, which were troubled by many issues, foremost of which was the "debt issue", which despite Talleyrand's absolute support for the Jews, they were unable to obtain. Fares mentions in the previous reference that "the father was very affected by the delay in payment, because most of the goods delivered by the Jews to France belonged to him."
Bakri and Bouchenak knew how to take advantage of bad relations well. When Algeria seized French ships or property in return for delaying its debts, they would obtain part of it. When Algeria transferred the ownership of French institutions to the English in 1807, Yacoub Bakri acquired a part of it in Qol and Jijel.
In 1815, the issue of debts came back to the fore again, as the "Al Raja" government in Paris wanted to restore relations with Algeria to their previous era. Fortunately for the Jews, Talleyrand was appointed to head that government. As well as the appointment of a new, "notorious" French consul in Algeria, called Pierre Deval, and the French historian Charles André Julien mentions in his book "The History of Algeria", translated by Amer Akhiz, that he "was officially assigned to take care of the debt issue, and to reassure my parents about this issue." And that this is "a new resumption of the suspicious policy that only served the Jews, and there was no doubt that if a conflict occurred between the Jews and my parents, France would support the interests of businessmen against the Dey, and in this direction Consul Deval was the right man to accomplish the work that was expected of him." Always talk to Julian.
Bakri and Boushnak were keen to take advantage of the opportunity resulting from “the presence of their supporters in the French government, and the presence of a consul who can be bought and colluded with in Algeria,” according to Fares in the previous reference, so they submitted a statement of their debts without documents, amounting to 24 million francs, and the amount was reduced through negotiations With the French to seven million, and here the French creditors, who had sums of money, objected to the Jews.
This was followed by executive measures confirming the cunning and cunning of the Jews, and their skillful manipulation of the French and Algerian governments alike. The preamble to the 1819 charter affirmed the king's commitment to pay for the restoration of normal relations, and the Dey pledged to do so. The case then entered the aisle of the French courts due to the objections of the French creditors, which complicate the case even more. These had double the sums due to Bakri and Bushnaq, according to Fares in the previous reference.
In the year 1805, Bushnak died at the hands of a Janissary soldier, and his money was confiscated after the killing of his ally, Mustafa Al-Zanaji, in the same year, as Pasha Ahmed took over after him, and he persecuted Bakri and his followers, but the latter had a very strong influence
The two Jews had long ago obtained, by means of a series of loans, large sums of money from France. Julian mentions that the two governments appeared to be imbecile, in front of the deception of the Jews. A great uproar was raised in France over financial suspicions about Bakri and Bouchenak, and their claim was true. Finally, the prosecutor’s decision was issued that after implementing the agreement after the king’s approval, “no request will be formulated from the French government regarding the debts of Bakri and Bushnak, and the acknowledgment of the Dey that France has fully fulfilled its obligations in accordance with the treaty of 1801,” according to Fares in the previous reference.
Both Bakri and Deval presented this agreement to the Dey, who ratified it. In his answer to the French government in April 1820, he declared his consent, thinking that Bakri would pay him his debts, but he was disappointed, and thus both governments were deceived in favor of the Jews. And talk to Faris always.
Bakri end
In the year 1805, Bushnak was killed by a Janissary soldier, and his money was confiscated after the murder of his ally, Dey Mustafa and Al-Zanaji, in the same year, as Pasha Ahmed took over after him, and he persecuted Bakri and his followers, but the latter had a very strong influence. In the year 1818, the Dei Hussein, who was clever and tyrannical, took power in Algeria and kept waiting for his debts to be paid. The French government clerk in this regard demanded “handing him over the amount reserved in the safe deposit box until the courts decide on the objections of the creditors, and he pledged in return to settle the debts of the French,” as Fares mentions. in the previous reference.
The French government refused his request, and even responded to it, and instructed its consul Deval to explain her point of view to the Dey, and Deval argued that the government red tape was slow, and that the delay was caused by issues related to treasury accounts.” The Dey refused, reasoning: “If the King of France had a debt from one of his followers, he would have been able to pay it.” Within 24 hours, and always talking to Fares.
He proposed in return that the sum of seven million Jewish debts should be paid, and pledged to satisfy their creditors in return. The French government did not respond and continued to push Deval to answer as before. My father believed that Deval was selling him words, and he never accepted his words again.
Meanwhile, the position of Yacoub Bakri, who was implicated in French debts along with sums in favor of English subjects, led by the English consul himself, and under pressure from the latter, Bakri was arrested, stoned and forced to relinquish his debts in Sardinia, France and Spain, by the Dey in August / August 1826.
But my father was again delusional, in his opinion, in obtaining Bakri's money in France, which did not exceed a tenth of his debts. Bakri, feeling he had lost everything, told the Dey that Deval had paid him a huge sum for his cooperation. In turn, my father lost confidence in the consul and asked to be summoned. And talk to Fares always, to begin after that, the critical period of political and military tension between the two countries, during which France revealed its colonial intentions using the political pretext following the “Fly Screen” incident, which led to the siege and occupation of Algeria in 1830, this occupation that lasted for about 130 A year and a half.
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