James Colquhoun

James Colquhoun (born June 7, 1780 on Kelvingrove estate in Lanarkshire , † July 23, 1855 in London ) was a lawyer of Scottish descent and diplomatic chargé d'affaires of the Hanseatic cities in London.

biography

Colquhoun, who holds a doctorate in law, took over the post of diplomatic agent in the rank of Minister-Resident and Consul General of the three Hanseatic cities of Bremen , Hamburg and Lübeck from his father Patrick Colquhoun, who died in 1820 .

The three formerly free imperial cities had become diplomatic sovereign in diplomatic terms after the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and had their interests represented mostly together for reasons of cost. The interests mostly touched on trade and shipping issues and the consular representation in capitals and port cities. Until the transition to the North German Confederation , the number of Hanseatic consulates rose to around 300. Of these, around 150 were in Europe. After the balance of power had shifted significantly in favor of England after the Congress of Vienna , London was a place of outstanding importance, at least for Bremen and Hamburg, economically and politically.

In long-distance trade, the balance of power began to shift, particularly with regard to the states forming in South and Central America. Dealing with the former colonies, which were looking for recognition, had to take into account their diplomatic non-recognition by the established states of Europe, if one did not want to get caught between several stools. From 1822 the relevant negotiations began in London. James Colquhoun, authorized in each case, represented the three cities in London in the negotiation and also in the conclusion of appropriate international friendship, trade and shipping agreements, other agreements were negotiated by his colleague Vincent Rumpff in Paris . Significant in this respect was the first conclusion of a contract with the United Kingdom itself in 1825 , which was virtually the prerequisite for further contracts of this type. It was adopted by the North German Confederation in 1867 and remained in force until the outbreak of the First World War between England and the German Empire. The friendship, trade and shipping treaty with the United States of America from 1827, which was negotiated and concluded by Rumpff in Washington, DC and which lasted until the USA entered the war in 1917, lasted for a similarly long time . The long existence of these agreements in a rapidly changing time also indicates the formal and material quality based on reciprocity and most-favored nation treatment , i.e. also the legal craftsmanship of the two negotiators Colquhoun and Rumpff; otherwise, at the instigation of the German Empire, the treaties would surely have been renegotiated immediately after its creation.

The first contracts between the Hanseatic cities and South and Central America took place in 1827 ( Brazil ), 1832 ( Mexico ) and 1837 with Venezuela ; others followed.

The treaty negotiated by James Colquhoun and concluded in London in 1839 with the then High Porte government of the Ottoman Empire was remarkable . After the conquest of Algiers by France in 1830 and the conclusion of a friendship treaty between the Sublime Porte and Great Britain (1838), the foundation stone was laid for pacifying trade and shipping in the Mediterranean, and the treaty of the Hanseatic cities created the urgently needed legal security in the Mediterranean . It was a prerequisite for the abolition of the still existing slave coffers in the Hanseatic cities, whose capital stock was used, for example, in Lübeck to replace the sound tariff levied by Denmark after the Copenhagen Conference (1857). Colquhoun's son Patrick was the first Hanseatic consul in Constantinople in 1841 .

Colquhoun's successor as Hanseatic Minister-Resident in London was Alfred Rücker from Hamburg after his death .

Honors

The three Hanseatic cities awarded their last London Stalhofmeister Colquhoun in recognition of his efforts and services to their common foreign policy in the same period their honorary citizenships ( Bremen honorary citizen from 1826 , Hamburg honorary citizen from 1834 , Lübeck honorary citizen from 1835 ), since he was the Prussian ambassador in various negotiations campaigned for Bremen's neutrality and the preservation of independence. A similar simultaneity was only achieved with the honorary citizens Bismarck and Moltke.

literature

• Antjekathrin Graßmann (Ed.): Lübeckische Geschichte , 2nd edition Lübeck 1989, p. 575 ff.
• Felix Becker: The Hanseatic Cities and Mexico. Trade Policy, Treaties and Trade, 1921-1867. Wiesbaden 1984
• Ortwin Pelc : The Hanseatic consulates on the lower Danube in the 19th century. In: The memory of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. Lübeck 2005, ISBN 3-7950-5555-5 , pp. 557-568.
• The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review , October 1855. JB Nichols & Sons, London
• Frederic Boase: Modern English Biography . Frank Cass, 1965

swell

1. ^ Pelc, p. 557
2. ↑ Text of the contract with Turkey
3. ^ Pelc, p. 559
4. ↑ Senate Chancellery, Award 1834 Dr. James Colquhoun (1780-1855). Retrieved February 3, 2017 .