Attempts to Revive the Commercial Exchange between Poland and Sweden in the Last Years of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s Reign Cover Image

Próby ożywienia polsko-szwedzkiej wymiany handlowej w ostatnich latach panowania Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego
Attempts to Revive the Commercial Exchange between Poland and Sweden in the Last Years of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s Reign

Author(s): Zbigniew Anusik
Subject(s): Economic history, International relations/trade, 18th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: relations between Poland and Sweden; negotiations about a trade convention; the closing years of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s reign;

Summary/Abstract: During the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–1795) the political and economic relations between Poland and Sweden were not too intensive. It was the outbreak of the great eastern war (1764–1792) and the changes in the political circumstances of the time that made the two capitals decide to co-operate more closely. The proof of the growing rapprochement between the two countries were the Warsaw Mission of Lars von Engeström on the one hand and on the other the establishment of the permanent diplomatic mission of the Polish Republic in Sweden headed by starost-translator Jerzy Michał Potocki. In 1790 Poland and Sweden started negotiations to form an alliance, but a formal treaty was never signed (there were several reasons). At the beginning of the same year in Stockholm the two parties initiated talks concerning a trade convention and even the preliminary conditions had been agreed on, but once again no formal treaty was signed. The war against Russia in defence of the 3rd May Constitution (1792) lost by Poland led to deterioration in the relations between Poland and Sweden. A possibility of renewing trade relations briefly appeared during the Kościuszko Uprising (1794); yet, the Swedes did not decide to establish closer ties with the authorities of the Uprising. The third partition of Poland (1795) and wiping the country off the map of Europe put an end to a short period of revival in political and economic relations between Stockholm and Warsaw.

  • Issue Year: 28/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 75-88
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish