« Activities « TransCorr Research Dissemination by Team Members
27–28 November 2026, Sofia University, New Conference Hall, Sofia, Bulgaria
Participation of Constantin Ardeleanu, TransCorr team member, at the International Academic Conference Diplomatic Networks and State-Building in Southeast Europe, 18th–20th Century, organized at Sofia University, with a presentation that investigates the role of British consuls as distinctive observers, mediators, and political actors in the Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia during the mid-nineteenth century (1830s–1850s).
Denouncing abuse, enabling patronage: British consular practices in the Danubian principalities (1830s–1860s)
Constantin ARDELEANU
New Europe College / Institute for Southeast European Studies, Bucharest
Panel II: Consulates, Extraterritoriality, and the Practice of Sovereignty
Friday, 27 November 2026, 14:00–15:30
Drawing on consular correspondence, the presentation traces a double discourse of denunciation surrounding administrative abuse and “corruption.” On one hand, British consuls denounced local authorities for various forms of misconduct, particularly abuses directed against foreign-protected subjects (sudits). On the other, Wallachian and Moldavian authorities accused the consuls themselves of sustaining a “corrupt” system that systematically circumvented the laws of the principalities. Far from standing above these entanglements, the consuls and vice-consuls in Bucharest, Iași, Galați or Brăila became deeply enmeshed in extensive networks of political and economic brokerage, exploiting the privileges that the capitulatory regime in the Ottoman dominions afforded them.
Consular archives thus serve as a rich and revealing source for documenting not only the shifting vocabularies of “corruption” but also the patronage and clientelist dynamics in which the consuls were themselves deeply implicated. By reading these records against the grain, the presentation illuminates the tensions between diplomatic rhetoric and local practice, offering fresh perspectives on the politics of extraterritoriality in Southeastern Europe.
Program of the conference (PDF)
