Treaty between Algiers and Sweden (1729)

Treaty between Algiers and Sweden (1729) was the first treaty between Sweden and the Regency of Algiers^[1] dealt with the treatment of Swedish captives in Algeria, and tribute payments in return for special passes for Swedish merchant ships that granted them immunity from attack in the Mediterranean Sea.^[1]

The treaty between Sweden and Algiers

Like other European countries, Sweden wanted to stop Algiers from attacking Swedish merchant ships and protect its economic security, and offered to sign a peace treaty with. with the 1729 treaty Algiers obtained a new financier for its fleet with marine construction materials and Sweden joined the countries paying taxes to Algiers. Following the example of the French, English and Dutch it also established a consulate in Algiers, its first Swedish in the Islamic world.^[2]

A Scottish resident of Algiers named George Logie helped arrange the treaty and was the head negotiator^[3] As the first Swedish consul in Algiers, he wrote in an October 13, 1738 letter to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce: "I can find no other way in which Algiers will be more useful to Sweden than by keeping the peace with it. Peace with Algiers gives our ships the freedom to sail safely to the Spanish and Portuguese shores as well as the rest of the Mediterranean ports"^[4]

Stipulations

• No Swedish captives should be harmed or tortured.^[5]
• No Swedish subject should be enslaved.^[5]
• If a slave flees to a Swedish warship, that slave should be taken back.^[5]
• No Swedish subject should be forced to ransom a slave, nor can the slave's owner be forced to sell against his will.^[5]

Results

As a reward for his success, George Logie became the first consul for Sweden in Algeria and went on to sign treaties with Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco.

References

1. Jamieson, Alan G. (2013-02-15). Lords of the Sea: A History of the Barbary Corsairs. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-946-0.
2. Salmi Radjai Abdelhadi. The 1729 Peace Treaty between the Eyalet of Algiers and the Kingdom of Sweden (PDF). OSTOR. p. 87.
3. Forssberg, Anna Maria (2011-01-01). Organizing History: Studies in Honour of Jan Glete. Nordic Academic Press. ISBN 978-91-85509-64-5.
4. Müller, Leos (2004). Consuls, Corsairs, and Commerce: The Swedish Consular Service and Long-distance Shipping, 1720-1815. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. p. 195. ISBN 978-91-974015-8-6.
5. Östlund, Joachim (2010). "Swedes in Barbary Captivity: The Political Culture of "Human Security", Circa 1660-1760". Historical Social Research. 35: 159. JSTOR 25758862 – via JSTOR.