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

Netherlands or via Jew brokers at Leghorn and Tangiers. 112
They were also
partly secured by treaties with the European countries, particularly the small
Nordic powers— the Netherlands and later Denmark and Sweden—under the
form of annual tributes. 113
It should be noted here that export of naval material to the Ottoman
North African regencies in general was prohibited by catholic laws because it
was seen as enhancement of Muslim warfare against Christendom. In the
counter-Reformation countries, such as Spain, Austria, Hungary, parts of
Germany, Italian city-states, Malta, and the Papal state, export was prohibited
by Papal edicts and Inquisition was strict about it. 114 In 1694, for example, the
Catholic Church excommunicated a Leghorn merchant because he exported
bales of plain paper to Tunis; the argument was that it could be used by the
Muslims for making cartridges. 115 In protestant Europe, however, particularly
England and the Nordic states, such considerations were the least of their
preoccupations; rather it was a case for rejoice. Since Muslims warfare was
against the ‘papists,’ their worst enemies, the protestant states perceived it “as
one means of counter-balancing Spanish and Papal powers.” 116 Furthermore,
export of such products favored their commercial expansion into
Mediterranean and North African markets. For those reasons, England and the
112 Fontenay, “La course dans l’économie portuaire,” p. 1329.
113 Devoulx, “Marine d’Alger,” pp. 386-87.
114
Kenneth Parker, “Reading ‘Barbary’ in Early Modern England, 1550–1685,” in Matthew
Birchwood and Matthew Dimmock, eds., Cultural Encounters between East and West: 1453–1699
(England: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2004), p. 90.
115 Fontenay, “La course dans l’économie portuaire,” p. 1333.
116 H. G. Barnby, The Prisoners of Algiers: An Account of the Forgotten American-Algerian War 1785-
1797 (London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 68.
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