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Militaria and Political Auction
Lot 1296:
In 13 pages 1807 Informing British Consul in Morocco of Restrictions on
Ottoman Trade
In 13 pages 1807 Informing British Consul in Morocco of Restrictions on Ottoman Trade In this letter, Foreign Secretary Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, informs British Consul James Green in Morocco about an Order in Council against the Ottoman Porte and directs him to explain the order to Emperor Mulay Suleiman (1766-1822) of Morocco. Three related printed documents from 1807 and 1809 convey additional orders in council regarding trade with France and its allies.
ROBERT STEWART, VISCOUNT CASTLREAGH, Manuscript Letter Signed, to James Green, May 16, 1807, London, England. 8 pp., 8" x 12.25". Also three Printed Documents: two issues of The London Gazette and an Order in Council, 1807-1809, London, England. 13 pp. Expected folds; very good. Ex-Malcolm Forbes and Sotheby’s
July 15, 1993.
As British Consul in Tangier, Green supported the British Royal Navy with supplies and intelligence on the movement of French and Spanish forces. He corresponded regularly with admirals of the British Mediterranean fleet and mediated communications between the British government and that of Sultan Mulay Suleiman. He dealt with matters of trade involving British merchants and provided updates on the political and economic affairs of Morocco.
Excerpts
"I herewith enclose to you an Order in Council which in consequence of the Hostilities commenced by the Ottoman Porte against His Majesty’s Forces His Majesty has been obliged reluctantly to issue: you will observe from the moderation of the Order that it is His Majesty’s wish to use every means in his Power to withdraw the Ottoman Porte from Subjection to French Influence, and that the Grand Signor should return to that State of Amity with His Majesty and his Allies, which His Majesty had hoped would have been never disturbed, and which, he still trusts will be soon renewed and rendered more close and permanent than ever."
"You will take the best opportunity in your Power for explaining these circumstances to the Government to which you are accredited, and you will express the Confidence which His Majesty feels that the unfortunate difference which has taken place between His Majesty and the Ottoman Porte will not in any degree interfere with those relations of Friendship and Peace which subsist between Him and the Emperor of Morocco..
"Lord Collingwood has received directions to keep as frequent a Communication with you as possible, and you will use every exertion and address in your Power in concert with the Vice Admirals Suggestion to counteract the Design of the French and promote His Majesty’s Interests."
Includes a handwritten copy of the Order in Council to detain any ships and crews at any
British port belonging to the "Subjects of the Grand Signor."]
Supplement to The London Gazette of Saturday, the 14th of November, November 16, 1807, 4 pp., 8" × 12.25". This supplemental issue reports Orders in Council of November
11, 1807, regarding the restriction of trade from the ports of France and its allies. They specifically mention the ports of Gibraltar and Malta and those of countries, like Morocco, "at Amity with His Majesty."
The London Gazette, November 28-December 1, 1807, 8 pp., 8" × 12.25". This issue has a handwritten marginal note, "relating to Barbary" beside this paragraph: "And it is hereby further ordered, that no Vessel belonging to any State on the Coast of Barbary shall be prevented from sailing with any Articles of the Growth or Produce of such State, from any Port or Place in such State, to any Port or Place in the Mediterranean, or Portugal, such Port or Place not being actually blockaded by some Naval Force belonging to His Majesty, or his Allies, without being obliged to touch at Gibraltar, or Malta."
Order in Council, May 10, 1809. 1 p., 8" × 12.5". This order revokes an order of May 13, 1807, that proclaimed a general embargo of all trade with the Ottoman Porte. In early January 1809, Great Britain and the Ottoman Porte signed the Treaty of the Dardanelles, ending the Anglo-Turkish War of 1807-1809. In the treaty, the Porte restored British commercial and legal privileges in the Ottoman Empire, and the British agreed to protect the Empire against French threats.
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) was born in Dublin and attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, for a year in 1786-1787. He was elected a member of the Irish Parliament in 1790, and after spending time in France, returned to the Irish Parliament in 1793. In the 1790s, he aided in the suppression of the United Irishmen. In 1796, when his father became the Earl of Londonderry, Stewart became Viscount Castlereagh. After serving in the Cabinet of Henry Addington, Castlereagh became the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the new government of William Pitt in
1804. After Pitt’s death in 1806, Castlereagh resigned, but he was soon reappointed as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1807 in the government of the Duke of Portland. A controversy with Foreign Secretary George Canning led to a duel between the two in September 1809, in which Castlereagh wounded Canning in the thigh. Both ministers resigned in the wake of public outrage over the duel. In 1812, Castlereagh returned to the government as Foreign Secretary, a position he held for the next ten years.
He also became leader of the House of Commons after the 1812 assassination of Spencer Perceval. He helped orchestrate the quadruple alliance between the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia and played a key role at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-
1815. He also aided through a series of treaties in the suppression of the African slave trade after Great Britain abolished it in 1807. Despised in both Great Britain and Ireland and overworked, Castlereagh killed himself while still in office in 1822. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and his pallbearers included a former, the current, and two future prime ministers.
James Green (1772-1840) served as the British Consul General in Morocco from July 1806 until his retirement in July 1817. The Governor of Gibraltar sent John Ross to Tangier to serve as acting British Consul from March to July 1806, when Green arrived.
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