Beratlı Avrupa Tüccarı (Patent holder Europe merchants) system was instituted in 1802 within the parameters of the Ottoman classical world as a result of the Porte’s recognition of the state’s regulatory role in economic development and of the demands of non-Muslim Ottoman merchants for freedom and security in their activities. The system offered protection and privileges to the merchants holding the patent and the number of merchants operating under it increased steadily. Based on 130 imperial orders kept in a special ahkam defteri (record book) in the Ottoman archives, this paper examines how the Avrupa Tüccarı used the Ottoman institutions as a privileged class between the years 1835 and 1839. The paper also studies the activities of the local Islamic courts and the imperial court at the palace (Arz Odası) with regard to Avrupa Tüccarı. The relationship between the sultan and the local Islamic courts will also be a part of this analysis. Moreover, this paper investigates dispute resolution at the Customs Office according to the mercantile customs and its interactions with the Islamic legal system and the Porte. It is shown that these institutions operated within the larger framework of the Islamic law (şer-i şerif), which was what the Ottomans perceived as ‘‘the law’’, and that all these courts had to rely on the extensive network of Islamic courts for the execution of their decisions. Therefore, rather than a separation between the spheres of these institutions, there was a fusion. However, intra-Avrupa Tüccarı disputes seems to have been resolved within the group, perhaps under the supervision of the deputy merchants. Subsequently, the complaints of the Avrupa Tüccarı about intervention in their estates and properties, and over-taxation are examined. While the system might have not provided full security and freedom for the Avrupa Tüccarı and a complete protection of their estates upon their deaths as envisaged at the time of the establishment of the system by the Porte to prevent Ottoman merchants from seeking foreign protection, it certainly provided a number of judicial privileges, advantageous taxation and more stable property rights. Albeit with certain limits, the institutional framework of the Avrupa Tüccarı system seems to have worked well and the merchants operating under this system thrived.