It was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment
"The sultan [of Morocco] was prepared to use his influence among the Ottomans to ensure that ‘all English ships that shall pass along his coast of Barbary, and through the straits [of Gibraltar] into the Levant seas’ would be granted ‘safe conduct that the said ships and merchants with their goods might pass into the Levant seas, and so to the Turk’s dominions’. As far as Hogan [Elizabeth I's special envoy] was concerned, he was now dealing with a quasi-Protestant Moroccan ruler offering him free trade across his kingdom, and unfettered access to Ottoman dominions and markets even further east. It was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment, but one that would not stand up to close scrutiny, nor would survive subsequent cataclysmic events in Morocco." (Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World)
Can you paraphrase the last sentence?
Top answer
alibey1917 Can you paraphrase the last sentence? " It (England's free access to the wider Mediterranean) was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment (that gave merchants the courage to venture there), but one that would not stand up to close scrutiny (but the Sultan's blandishments notwithstanding, there were still perils from the Moslems), nor would survive subsequent cataclysmic events in Morocco. (That is some odd grammar to modern ears.
- alibey1917 Can you paraphrase the last sentence?
- " It (England's free access to the wider Mediterranean) was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment (that gave merchants the courage to venture there), but one that would not stand up to close scrutiny (but the Sultan's blandishments notwithstanding, there were still perils from the Moslems), nor would survive subsequent cataclysmic events in Morocco.
- (That is some odd grammar to modern ears.
- We don't use "nor" that way.
- I would expect "nor would it".
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alibey1917Can you paraphrase the last sentence?
You mean this one:
"It was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment, but one that would not stand up to close scrutiny, nor would survive subsequent cataclysmic events in Morocco."
It (England's free access to the wider Mediterranean) was an assumption that sustained trade for the moment (
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