Commerce

1842 · réf. 6316 — London: T.R. Harrison 1842. Near fine. 38pp. stitched. Very minor bumps to top edge of first leaf light dust-soiling to outer leaves. A very rare treaty between Queen Victoria’s Britain and the “Oriental Republick of the Uruguay” printed in both English and Spanish in two parallel columns throughout. According to the text the parties were “mutually animated by a sincere desire to co-operate for the utter extinction of the barbarous Traffick in Slaves.for the special purpose of immediately attaining this object so far as relates to the total and final abolition of the Slave Trade of the Oriental Republick of the Uruguay.” The treaty is comprised of fourteen original articles plus three annexes totaling forty-six additional articles and four additional articles at the end covering a host of issues pertaining to the suppression of the slave trade. These issues included enforcement procedures the establishment of “Mixed Courts of Justice” “Regulations in respect to treatments of liberated negroes” and much more. With regard to slaves found on international vessels the two nations hoped for “permanent good treatment and a full and complete emancipation according to the humane intentions of the Parties of the Treaty.” The present treaty was part of a larger effort by the British Crown to put an end to the transatlantic slave trade in the first half of the 19th century; at this same time Britain had reached terms on a similar treaty with the Republic of Texas and other nations. The document is signed at the end in type by J.H. Mandeville and Jose Ellauri representatives of the two countries who originally signed the treaty at Montevideo on July 13 1839; the present work was “Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty” in 1842 likely due to bureaucratic delays. Uruguay would have been an important ally for Great Britain in monitoring the seas against the transatlantic slave trade given its position opposite the South Atlantic Ocean from West Africa. OCLC records just a single physical copy of this treaty at the University of Arizona. Cundall 2854. T.R. Harrison unknown