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

markets and consequently economic prosperity; but since they had declared
their independence, and subsequently obtained it, they were in the position of
the rival that had to be checked. Now that the United States was claiming
markets for itself, and a part of the cake, it was unlikely that the Europeans
were going to lend it a helping hand or allow a treatment of favor for its
seaborne trade. Hence, when the first American envoys to the European courts
asked for security guarantees for American shipping in the Mediterranean to be
included in treaties of peace, the European countries, one after the other,
rejected the request because abiding by the American demand would have
meant that they were welcoming a trade rival, therefore contributing to their
own commercial decline. More, the American demand was badly perceived
because it seemed to Europeans “that the American government was trying to
maintain their [sic] merchants in a profitable area without paying for the
privilege.” 42 Great Britain and France, for example, could not see why they
would continue to spend huge sums of money to maintain fleets—that from
time to time visited Algiers on menacing missions—if not for the privileges the
Americans wanted to get for free. The Netherlands and Sweden, particularly,
two lesser powers that were bound to Algiers with treaties that stipulated
payment of tribute and presentation of consular gifts, could certainly not either
understand why the Americans wanted to get privileges and not pay for the
attached charges, i.e.: tribute and consular presents. 43
42 Barnby, Prisoners of Algiers, p. 71.
43 For more, see ibid.
216