United States and Ottoman Empire Sign a Commerce and Navigation Treaty

Captain James Biddle, David Offley, and Charles Rhind presented their credentials in February 1830 to begin negotiations with the Ottoman government. [1] [2]

On 7 May 1830, American and Ottoman negotiators signed a treaty of commerce and navigation at Constantinople. Its provisions dealt with the work of merchants and captains: customs payments, brokers, consuls, and the passage of ships between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. [2]

The treaty gave American traders the commercial treatment enjoyed by the most favored foreign nation. It also placed Americans accused of offenses under the authority of their own minister or consul. These consular privileges belonged to a system in which foreign powers exercised legal rights within Ottoman territory. [2]

Ottoman officials could not commandeer an American merchant vessel against its owner’s wishes, and ships wrecked on either country’s coast were to receive help. Formal diplomatic relations followed in 1831, when David Porter presented his credentials as the American chargé d’affaires. [2] [1]

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