of the state to which his
nomination has been communicated by his own government. This
_exequatur_, called in Turkey a _barat_, may be revoked at any time at
the discretion of the government where he resides. The status of consuls
commissioned by the Christian powers to reside in Mahommedan countries,
China, Korea, Siam, and, until 1899, in Japan, and to exercise judicial
functions in civil and criminal matters between their own countrymen and
strangers, is exceptional to the common law, and is founded on special
conventions or capitulations (q.v.).

The title of consul, in the sense in which it is used in international
law, is derived from that of certain magistrates, in the cities of
medieval Italy, Provence and Languedoc, charged with the settlement of
trade disputes whether by sea or land (_consules mercatorum, consules
artis maris_, &c.)[1] With the growth of trade it early became
convenient to appoint agents with similar powers in foreign parts, and
these often, though not invariably, were styled consuls (_consules in
partibus ultramarinis_).[2] The earliest foreign consuls were those
established by Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Florence, between 1098 and 1196,
in the Levant, at Constantinople, in Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Of
these the Pisan agent at Constantinople bore the title of consul, the
Venetian that of baylo (q.v.). In 1251 Louis IX. of France arranged a
treaty with the sultan of Egypt under which French consuls were
established at Tripoli and Alexandria, and Du Cange cites a charter of
James of Aragon, dated 1268, granting to the city of Barcelona the right
to elect consuls in _partibus ultramarinis_, &c. The free growth of the
system was, however, hampered by commercial and dynastic rivalries. The
system of French foreign consulships, for instance, all but died out
after the crushing of the independent life of the south and the
incorporation of Provence and Languedoc under the French crown; while,
with the establishment of Venetian supremacy in the Levant, the _baylo_
developed into a diplomatic agent of the first class at the expense of
the consuls of rival states. The modern system of consulships actually
dates only from the 16th century. Early in this century both England and
Scotland had their "conservators" with "jurisdiction to do justice
between merchant and merchant beyond the seas"; but France led the way.
The alliance between Francis I. and Suleiman the Magnificent gave her
special advantages in t