The Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between the United States and Sweden, was a treaty signed on April 3, 1783 in Paris, France between the United States and the Kingdom of Sweden. The treaty established a commercial alliance between these two nations and was signed during the American Revolutionary War.
In 1783 Benjamin Franklin was the American resident in Paris, and on September 28, 1782 he was given a new assignment by Congress, and was made Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty King Gustav III of Sweden. However, because Franklin was based in Paris, France, the discussions was carried out via the Swedish ambassador to the court of France, Count Gustaf Philip Creutz.
On April 3, 1783, the two of them signed the treaty.
Later that same year (1783), the Treaty of Paris was signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, which ended the American Revolutionary War.
Benjamin Franklin
Count Gustaf Philip Creutz
Peace and friendship between the U.S. and Sweden
Mutual Most Favored Nation status with regard to commerce and navigation
Mutual protection of all vessels and cargo when in U.S. or Swedish jurisdiction
Mutual right for citizens of one country to hold land in other's territory
Mutual right to search a ship of the other's coming out of an enemy port for contraband
Right to due process of law if contraband is found on an allied ship and only after being Officially declared contraband may it be seized
Mutual protection of men of war and privateers and their crews from harm from the other party and reparations to be paid if this provision is broken
Restoration of stolen property taken by pirates
Right of Ships of War and privateers to freely carry ships and goods taken for their enemy
Mutual assistance, relief, and safe harbor to ships, both of War and Merchant, in crisis in the other's territory
Neither side may commission privateers against the other nor allow foreign privateers that are enemies of either side to use their ports
Mutual right to trade with enemy states of the other as long as those goods are not contraband
If the two nations become enemies nine months protection of merchant ships in enemy territory
To prevent quarrels between allies all ships must carry passports and cargo manifests
If two ships meet Ships of War and Privateers must stay out of cannon range but may board the merchant ship to inspect her passports and manifests
Mutual Right to inspection of a ship's cargo to only happen once
Mutual right to have Counsuls, Vice Counsuls, Agents, and Commissaries of one nation in the other's ports
The Treaty was ratified by Congress on September 25, 1783.
The Treaty was ratified by Sweden in 1783.
The ratifications were exchanged at Paris on February 6, 1784.
