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

and that only at times of European hostilities. That stand also conformed to the
principles of the League of Armed Neutrality to which Sweden adhered. The
Swedish, keen as they were about neutrality that so far secured them enormous
freight profits, would certainly not venture to secure a place in Mediterranean
trade for a potential carrying rival. Moreover, their own position with the Dey
of Algiers was not that much consolidated: first, because they entered in
diplomatic relations with Algiers relatively late (1727); and second, being a
small power, they certainly could not exercise great leverage on the rulers of
Algiers. Nevertheless, that accomplishment let the Americans presage that they
“shall have, undoubtedly, a considerable commerce in the Mediterranean;” and
for that reason, they expressed thoughts as to the need to take early measures
“to cultivate the friendship of the States of Barbary.” 66
The treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, and thanks to Americans’ betrayal
of their wartime allies, France and Spain, was to secure to the United States
immense land gains in North America; 67
but it unequivocally excluded
American trade from British markets and rejected protection of Mediterranean
trade. After the provisional treaty of peace had been ratified by Congress, the
latter instructed its negotiator to include in the definitive treaty certain
commercial provisions of which one committing “His Britannic majesty” to
“employ his good offices and interposition with … Algiers, in order to provide
as fully and efficaciously as possible for the benefit, convenience, and safety”
of the United States “against all violence, insult, attacks, or depredations” on
66 DCAR, 9:166, Carmichael to Robert R. Livingston, March 13, 1783.
67 Duroselle, La France et les Etats-Unis, pp. 32-33.
225