Diplomati underifrån : En studie av maktrelationer mellan Sverige och Alger 1729-1830 utifrån handelsmännens roll och funktion i Medelhavets politiska och handelsinriktade diplomati: med utgångspunkt i en litteraturgranskning och en pilotstudie av ett beg

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is an attempt to investigate the relations of power between Sweden and the North African state of Algiers during the 18th century with small and intermediary agents as merchants and their role in the political and tradeoriented diplomacy practised in the Mediterranean Sea as point of departure. It is also an attempt to try and develop the understanding of this lesser investigated subject. Furthermore, it is an attempt to survey what historical documents are available on the subject of my study and the perspective adherent to it. The problem in this study are the relations of power between Sweden and the North African state of Algiers during the 18th century with small and intermediary agents as merchants and their role in the political and tradeoriented diplomacy practised in the Mediterranean as point of departure.The method used is a manuscriptanalysis with a historical character, a method with which historical documents, litterature and previous research are analyzed and interpreted. The source material used are the written documents of consul Georg Logie to the Board of Trade (Kommerskollegium).1 In the first chapter of the study it is stated that there is little evidence in the material, literature and previous research for small agents such as merchantmen and their role in the diplomacy and relations between states as well as in the international context created by states, but also the possibility that the merchants had a potential role in the diplomacy and relations between states as well as in the international context created and constituted by states. In the second chapter of the study it is stated that based upon relevant information obtained in a pilot study there is little evidence in the material with regards to an essay and the time limit it has in relation to an archive and the amount of material it possesses.The possibility that small agents as the merchants potentially had room to act in the international context created and constituted by states is also put forward here. The possibility that it became beneficial for agents as merchantmen to act is put forward in the third chapter. The problem of studying relations between states setting from small and intermediary agents is probably due to a perspective in which trade is defined and seen as a collective phenomenon and merchants is defined as a collective. 1 The equivalent in today's society would be along the lines of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs., my note.