THE DANUBE NAVIGATION AND THE AUSTRIAN-BRITISH TREATY OF JULY 1838 The paper analyses the context in which the British and Austrian governments signed at Vienna, on July 3, 1838, a new treaty of commerce and navigation, which stipulated,...
moreTHE DANUBE NAVIGATION AND THE AUSTRIAN-BRITISH TREATY OF JULY 1838
The paper analyses the context in which the British and Austrian governments signed at Vienna, on July 3, 1838, a new treaty of commerce and navigation, which stipulated, in its fourth article, that “all Austrian vessels arriving from the ports of the Danube, as far as Galacz inclusively, shall, together with their cargoes, be admitted into the ports of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and of all the Possessions of Her Britannic Majesty, exactly in the same manner as if such vessels came direct from Austrian ports, with all the privileges and immunities stipulated by the present Treaty of Navigation and Commerce. In like manner, all British vessels, with their cargoes, shall continue to be placed upon the same footing as Austrian vessels, whenever such British vessels shall enter into or depart from the same Ports”. Though initially considering it as advantageous for British merchants and ship-owners, the conservative opposition strongly criticised the treaty, as it was based on a double fallacious foundation: firstly, there were no Austrian ports on the Danube where British sea-going vessels could call, and thus the two signatories agreed upon the terms of entering Turkish ports; secondly, it was contrary to navigation laws to allow Austrian ships loaded at the Danube to sail to British ports. Thus, in 1839, when an Austrian vessel, the “Vallaco”, attempted to enter the port of Gloucester, with a cargo of Danubian grain, it was seized on the ground of violating the navigation laws and then relieved, after the payment of a fine. Proving inoperative and illegal without further legislative measures, the treaty was criticised both by the conservative politicians and the antigovernmental publicists. The paper covers the parliamentary debates and the works of two vocal and influential publicists, William Cargill and David Urquhart, so as to give an idea of the public echo of these agitations, fully revealing the prospects which the British political and economic circles related to the development of the Danube navigation and the exploration of the Romanian Principalities’ resources. In the same time, the treaty is analysed in the context of the strained British-Russian relations in the Near East, after the conclusion of the treaties of Adrianople and Unkiar Skellesi, when the Russian impositions in the way of the Danube navigation became the object of Britain’s diplomatic representations.