Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

or renegotiate a treaty of peace, it would send its squadron(s) to Algiers for the
purpose. By effective use of force or threat to use force, the navy admirals
generally obtained concessions from the rulers of Algiers and concluded
favorable treaties for their countries.
b) The provisions: the treaty stipulated the following: Algerian ships
were authorized to visit Dutch ports whereas Dutch ships were authorized to
trade at Algiers. The captives, Algerian and Dutch, were to be ransomed or
exchanged. Finally, the Algerian corsairs were authorized to control Dutch
ships and proceed to seize enemy freight aboard those ships on the condition
that they pay the transport fees for the seized cargo. 31
At first sight, these basic elements of the treaty seem to be simple and
favorable to both signatories but in fact they are complex and thorny which
explains the difficulties, ambiguities, and even hostilities that arose ultimately:
First, the open or free ports clause profited more to Dutch commerce
than to the visits of Algerian corsairs. Algiers had no merchant navy and all its
imports and exports were carried in foreign bottoms and its foreign trade was at
the hands of foreign and Jew brokers who were more interested in exporting
valuable local production (wheat, barley, hides, wool, olive oil, wax, copper…)
than importing Dutch products. 32 From The Netherlands, however, there was
little production that interested the Algerians—certainly not salted fish and
31
Groot, “Ottoman North Africa and the Dutch Republic,” pp. 135-36; Panzac, Corsaires
barbaresques, pp. 26-27.
32 Morton Rosenstock, “The House of Bakri and Busnach: A Chapter from Algeria’s Commercial
History,” Jewish Social Studies, 14 (1952), p. 345; Groot, “Ottoman North Africa and the Dutch
Republic,” pp. 138-39.
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