ABSTRACT
The loss of the American colonies in 1783 was widely interpreted as a commercial disaster. It also left Britain isolated in European diplomacy. The general, but by no means universal, assumption in Britain was that new alliances were urgently needed. William Pitt looked to commerce as the best means both of increasing national wealth and of reducing tensions between nations. The Eden Trade Treaty, though it promised more than time would permit it to deliver, was, for its time, a surprisingly thoroughgoing document. It gave subjects of France and Britain free access to each other’s country without passports or any form of taxation. Pitt faced two significant diplomatic crises before the outbreak of war. The incident at Nootka Sound, off what is now Vancouver Island in western Canada, was born of Spain’s desire to retain a substantial presence in North America. The Ochakov crisis brought Britain into dispute with Russia.
