Between Mercantilism, Oriental Luxury and the Ottoman Threat: Discourses on the Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Kingdom of Poland

Osipian, Aleksandr

doi:0001-6829

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Between Mercantilism, Oriental Luxury and the Ottoman Threat: Discourses on the Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Kingdom of Poland Osipian, Aleksandr

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Between Mercantilism, Oriental Luxury and the Ottoman Threat: Discourses on the Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Kingdom of Poland

Acta Poloniae Historica T. 116 (2017) ; The Wealth of Diversity Inter-religious and Inter-confessional Contacts in Central and East-Central Europe in the Early Modern Era

Osipian, Aleksandr

Hartzell, James : Ed. ; Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences ; Polish National Historical Committee

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Poland - relations - Ottoman, Empire ; Ottoman, Empire - relations - Poland ; Poland - foreign trade - 1500-1800 ; Armenians - Poland - history

This paper analyses the attitudes toward the Armenian Diaspora in early modern Polish society through a close examination of the issues viewed as burning by the contemporaries. The paper is focused on three such burning topics – a) the ‘price revolution’ and, in connection therewith, mercantilism; b) the growing level of consumption (“redundant luxury” – zbytek nierozmyślny) and the fears of social disorder aroused by it; and c) the Ottoman threat (real and imagined). The paper argues that there were a variety of discourses on the Armenians because the discourses were influenced by the different answers to the challenging issues presented by the representatives of various social estates – noblemen (szlachta), clergymen (duchowieństwo) and burghers (mieszczaństwo). Therefore, the attitudes to the Monophysite Armenians in Polish society were mostly shaped not as part of the Counter-Reformation agenda (as was the case with respect to Protestants and the GreekOrthodox), but rather within the framework of economic (mercantilism), social (consumption), and psychological/political (fears of the Ottoman threat) issues.

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