Millions for Credit: Peace with Algiers and the Establishment of America’s Commercial Reputation Overseas, 1795–96
In September 1795, the United States of America agreed to pay a large sum of money to the independent Ottoman regency of Algiers so that Algiers would not interfere with its trade in and around the Mediterranean. This trade was of great importance for American farmers and merchants, who hoped to meet warring European armies’ increased demand for grain, as well as for the American commercial fleet, which sought to increase its share of the Mediterranean carrying trade. For the next thirteen months, however, the United States struggled to make the payment, and the Dey of Algiers repeatedly threatened to cancel the treaty.  American historians usually describe this series of events as a diplomatic crisis and national disgrace, during which the United States was forced to pay protection money to safeguard its ships from the Algerian corsair fleets mistakenly termed “pirates.” This article argues, however, that the American payment to Algiers benefited the United States by establishing American commercial credit and political credibility overseas. As the treaty payment left the Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, entered the London financial markets, and passed through the hands of merchant houses in Cadiz and Livorno, a diverse group of international creditors became invested in American success. When the payment at last arrived as specie in Algiers, government leaders, diplomats, merchants and insurers around Europe and the Mediterranean had new reason to believe that the credit of the new republic was good.
Commerce and Conquest in Early American Foreign Relations, 1750–1850
Ideas about free trade and open commerce drove early American foreign policy before the War of 1812. Concern with expansion was not entirely absent from American diplomacy, but until the 1820s, 30s and 40s, it played a less significant role in foreign policy decisions than trade. Before the Revolutionary War both the British and American believed that their empire was based on commerce and not conquest. They engaged in wars for empire determined to secure the colonies from outside threats and to defend commerce. The American Revolution began in controversies over the regulation of commerce and taxation (usually connected to trade as well). The Revolutionaries sought to establish a new diplomatic regime based on free trade. They persisted in this concern in the creation of the Confederation government and with the establishment of the American republic under the Constitution of 1787. All of the major treaties between the United States and other nations before 1812 concerned commerce, even when they included territorial acquisition. The Louisiana Purchase began as an effort to secure commerce on the Mississippi by gaining the port of New Orleans. Conquest first emerged as the salient policy in dealing with Native Americans, and was then extended to Florida, Texas, and northern Mexico thereafter. However, even when manifest destiny had become the focus of American foreign policy, commerce and free trade remained important.
The lights that failed: European international history, 1919-1933
PART I: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE, 1918-1929 1. The Hall of Mirrors: Peacemaking in the West 2. Distant Frontiers: Peacemaking in the East 3. Revolution from the Left: The Soviet Union and the Post-War Settlement 4. The Primacy of Economics: Reconstruction in Western Europe, 1919-1924 5. The Primacy of Nationalism: Reconstruction in Eastern and Central Europe 6. Revolution from the Right: Italy, 1919-25 7. The Geneva Dream: The League of Nations and Post-War Internationalism 8. New Dawn? Stabilisation in Western Europe after Locarno 9. Faltering Reconstruction: Cracks in the Locarno Facade 10. Troubled Waters: Uncertainties in Italy, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union 11. Faltering Internationalism: Disarmament and Security after Locarno Conclusion: Europe Reconstructed? PART II: THE HINGE YEARS, 1930-1933 12. The Diplomacy of the Depression: Economics and Foreign Policy 13. Beyond Europe: The Manchurian Crisis 14. The Poisoned Chalice: The Pursuit of Disarmament Conclusion: The Hinge Years Appendices Select Bibliography