The Treaty of Utrecht (1713)

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

1. The peace was made in stages. An Anglo-French treaty of suspension of arms was signed on 8 August 1712, the suspension to commence on 11 August and continue four months until 11 December, and Queen Anne proclaimed it at Windsor on 18 August 1712, reciting that a treaty for putting an end to the war was then carrying on at Utrecht. The Anglo-French peace was concluded at Utrecht on 11 April 1713, and a treaty of commerce between the same two powers was made the same day. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Proclamation in the London Gazette and printed treaty: The London Gazette, No. 5043, from Saturday August 16 to Tuesday August 19, 1712, p. 1: "A PROCLAMATION, Declaring the Suspension of Arms, as well by Sea as Land, agreed upon between Her Majesty and the Most Christian King", reciting "a Treaty hath for some time been set on Foot, and is now carrying on at Utrecht", and "That there shall be a General Suspension of all Warlike Actions... during the Term of Four Months, to Commence from the Eleventh of this Instant August, and to continue until the Eleventh of December next", the treaty of suspension having been signed on "the Eighth of this Instant August"; given at Windsor 18 August 1712. With Tractatus pacis et amicitiae... A Treaty of Peace and Friendship between... Anne... and... Lewis the XIV (London, by Her Majesty's Special Command, 1713), the Latin and English text of the Anglo-French treaty concluded at Utrecht, article IX referring to "the Treaty of Commerce this Day made between the two Nations", subscribed "Trajecti ad Rhenum, Die [un]decimo Aprilis, Anni millesimi septingentesimi decimi tertii" by Strafford, Bristol, Mesnager and Huxelles; read in the Internet Archive copy of the eighteenth-century collections scan
2. The Anglo-French treaty concluded at Utrecht on 11 April 1713 restored to Great Britain the Bay and Straits of Hudson with all lands, seas, coasts, rivers and places belonging to them; gave her the island of Newfoundland with the town and fortress of Placentia, sole possession of the island of Saint Christopher's, and all Nova Scotia or Acadia with its ancient boundaries, including Port Royal, thereafter Annapolis Royal; while France kept Cape Breton and the islands in the mouth and gulf of the Saint Lawrence with full liberty to fortify them, and a fishery on the Newfoundland coast between Cape Bonavista and Point Riche. The treaty further required that all the fortifications of the city of Dunkirk be razed, the harbour filled up and the sluices or moles levelled, never to be repaired. The reading of the Dunkirk article as aimed squarely at destroying a privateering base is the Archive's own inference and is not stated in the treaty. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed treaty: Tractatus pacis et amicitiae... A Treaty of Peace and Friendship between... Anne... and... Lewis the XIV, concluded at Utrecht 11 April 1713 (London, printed by Her Majesty's Special Command, 1713), Latin and English in parallel columns, read in the Internet Archive copy of the eighteenth-century collections scan. Article IX: "The most Christian King shall take care that all the Fortifications of the City of Dunkirk be razed; that the Harbour be filled up, and that the Sluices or Moles which serve to cleanse the Harbour be Levelled... And on this express Condition also; that the said Fortifications, Harbour, Moles, or Sluices be never Repaired again". Article X: "restore to the Kingdom and Queen of Great Britain, to be possessed in full Right for ever, the Bay and Streights of Hudson, together with all Lands, Seas, Sea-Coasts, Rivers, and Places situate in the said Bay, and Streights, and which belong thereunto". Article XII: "the Island of Saint Christophers is to be possessed alone hereafter by British Subjects, likewise all Nova Scotia or Accadie, with its ancient Boundaries, as also... Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal". Article XIII: "The Island called Newfoundland, with the adjacent Islands, shall from this time forward, belong of Right wholly to Britain; and to that end the Town and Fortress of Placentia... shall be yielded and given up... But the Island called Cape Breton, as also all others, both in the Mouth of the River of St. Lawrence, and in the Gulph of the same Name, shall hereafter belong of Right to the French"
3. The Asiento, signed by the Catholic King at Madrid on 26 March 1713 and printed in English under royal licence in June 1713, ran thirty years from the first day of May 1713 to the like day in 1743, and bound the contractors to bring into the Spanish West Indies one hundred and forty four thousand Negroes, Piezas de India, of both sexes and of all ages, at the rate of four thousand eight hundred a year. The duty was thirty three and one third pieces of eight for each Negro, Pieza de India, of the regular standard of seven quarters, not being old or defective, and covered all other duties of importation. An additional article granted a ship of five hundred tons yearly to trade to the Indies, its goods to be sold only in the time of the fair and free of all duties. Both crowns were concerned for one half of the trade, a quarter part each, so the quarter share of the profits was not reserved to the King of Spain alone. The contractual unit was the pieza de India in the contract's own words, and not an inference drawn by the Archive. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Printed treaty: The Assiento, or Contract for Allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the Liberty of Importing Negroes into the Spanish America, signed by the Catholick King at Madrid, the 26th day of March 1713 (London, printed by John Baskett and the assigns of Thomas Newcomb and Henry Hills, licence dated at Kensington 20 June 1713), read in the Internet Archive copy of the CIHM microfiche scan. Article I: "One hundred and forty four thousand Negroes, Piezas de India, of both Sexes, and of all Ages, at the Rate of Four thousand and eight hundred Negroes, Piezas de India, in each of the said Thirty years", the term "to Commence on the First Day of May, One thousand seven hundred and thirteen, and Determine on the like Day, which will be in the Year One thousand seven hundred and forty three". Article II: "That for each Negro, Pieza de India, of the regular Standard of Seven Quarters, not being old or defective... the Assientists shall pay Thirty three" [and one third, printed later in the same article as 33 1/3] "Pieces of Eight, in which Sum shall be accounted to be, and shall be comprehended, all and all manner of Duties". Article XXVIII: "both Their Majesties shall be concern'd for One half of this Trade, each of them a Quarter part". Additional Article: a ship "of Five hundred Tons Yearly... during the Thirty Years" to trade to the Indies
4. Utrecht left the Bahamas formally British and practically ungoverned, and the calendared colonial record shows the gap being filled within three years and three months of the signatures: Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 3 July 1716 Old Style that a nest of pirates was endeavouring to establish itself at Providence and might prove dangerous to British commerce, enclosing depositions from John Vickers and Alexander Stockdale that gave Benjamin Hornigold sailing in January with 140 men, six guns and eight pattararas and about fifty deserters ashore under Thomas Barrow, who gave out that he was Governor of Providence and would make the place a second Madagascar, and on 31 May 1717 Old Style the Council advised Secretary Addison that the pirates were grown so numerous that trade was in danger, recommended a fourth rate or two fifth rates and proposed a pardon for those surrendering within a limited time; the 1724 narrative dates the Spanish plate fleet wreck that drew the salvage crowds to about 1714. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers, with a period narrative: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 29, 1716 to 1717, ed. Cecil Headlam (HMSO, 1930), item 240 with enclosures 240 i to iii (C.O. 5, 1317. Nos. 45, 45 i. to iii.) and item 596 (C.O. 324, 10. pp. 117 to 120), digitised on British History Online; A General History of the Pyrates, second edition (London, printed for T. Warner, 1724), attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, authorship disputed, for the Jennings raid and the wreck dating
5. The causal link from Utrecht to the post-war surge in Atlantic piracy is carried as probable and never as confirmed, because the file holds parallel causes rather than one: the 1724 General History states the demobilisation mechanism directly, that "Privateers in Time of War are a Nursery for Pyrates against a Peace", and opens its Martel chapter by coming to the pirates that have risen since the Peace of Utrecht; the same text supplies a second and independent cause in Spanish colonial governors, "being often some hungry Courtiers, sent thither to repair or make a Fortune", commissioning vessels of war to seize all shipping within five leagues of their coasts, with English reprisal following; and no naval manpower figure is asserted anywhere. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, second edition (London, printed for T. Warner, 1724), attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, authorship disputed, preface, introduction and the chapter on Martel, quoted from the Project Gutenberg transcription of the page scans