Les intérêts français au bas-Danube à la moitié du XIXe siècle à travers la correspondance commerciale du consul français Eugène Poujade (1849-1854)

Author: Alina-Florina PLATON
Keywords: Eugène Poujade, consulate, Romanian Principalities, Ottoman Empire, consular correspondence, economic relations.

The foreign powers’ representatives in the Principalities had an important part in promoting their countries’ and their subjects’ interests. Eugène Poujade, general consul of France in Bucharest during the reign of Barbu Ştirbei, also activated for this. In his reports he recorded the economic situation of the Romanian Principalities, the possibilities of developing the export of Romanian products to France, but also regarding the increasing of the imports from the Occident and aspects referring to the local French colony. The case study about this consul’s activity is relevant for the study of the foreign consular agencies, but also shows the particular importance of the unpublished documents deposited in the French Foreign Ministry’s archives and of the information they contain.