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

corsairing and its related activities concerned only a small portion of the
population of the regency of Algiers. That portion included Turks and
renegades mainly who actually derived revenue from corsairing whereas the
majority of the population (Arabs, Moors, and Berbers) derived revenues from
agricultural activities. So, Algiers did not live parasitically on booty and
looting.
Third, payments in naval stores and consular presents were not
blackmail or extortion money as westerners often argue; rather they were
charges attached to privileges that served to guarantee Algiers reciprocity in
profit-making. In matters of trade, the principle of reciprocity was rarely
incorporated in treaties; generally, treaties opened Algerian ports, markets, and
riches to western privateers and traders at a time Algiers had no merchant navy
and its external trade and finances were totally monopolized by Christian
merchants and Jew brokers. In the very rare cases when Algerian merchants
ventured in the export or carrying businesses, they encountered discriminatory
policies which ejected them from European markets. Reciprocity covered
cruisers and corsairs exclusively but then only on the high seas; very rare were
the ports which welcomed Algerian merchantmen—when they existed—and
corsairs were denied access to European ports—except in cases of distress. So,
to compensate the large privileges Christians obtained at Algiers, treaties
provided for annual payments usually in the form of naval materials—
pejoratively called ‘tribute’ in western writing—and biennial consular presents
which were considered as regalian rights. So long as Algiers could enforce its
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