![[Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie]. [Plan of a treaty of commerce to be entered into between... the Estates of the seven United States of Holland, and the 13 United States of North America, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia]. [Drophead title]: Extract uit het register der resolutien van de hoog mogende heeren Staaten generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden. Veneris den 20 October 1780. by (AMERICA).](https://images.vialibri.net/production/26/9137---height_450.jpg?v=1776670476)
![Another image of [Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie]. [Plan of a treaty of commerce to be entered into between... the Estates of the seven United States of Holland, and the 13 United States of North America, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia]. [Drophead title]: Extract uit het register der resolutien van de hoog mogende heeren Staaten generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden. Veneris den 20 October 1780. by (AMERICA).](https://images.vialibri.net/production/26/9137---800.jpg?v=1776670476)
![Another image of [Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie]. [Plan of a treaty of commerce to be entered into between... the Estates of the seven United States of Holland, and the 13 United States of North America, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia]. [Drophead title]: Extract uit het register der resolutien van de hoog mogende heeren Staaten generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden. Veneris den 20 October 1780. by (AMERICA).](https://images.vialibri.net/production/26/9137b---800.jpg?v=1776670477)
(AMERICA). ~ [Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie]. [Plan of a treaty of commerce to be entered into between... the Estates of the seven United States of Holland, and the 13 United States of North America, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Georgia]. [Drophead title]: Extract uit het register der resolutien van de hoog mogende heeren Staaten generaal der Vereenigde Nederlanden. Veneris den 20 October 1780. [n.p. ?The Hague, n.d., 1780].
Folio (335 × 205 mm), pp. 48. Text mainly in two columns (English and Dutch texts). Uncut, stitched (stitching partially defective). Light browning.
First edition with the English text of the Preparatoirlyk plan, van een tractaat van commercie (Plan of a Treaty of Commerce) projected between Holland and the United States. Though never concluded it is important as one of the earliest treaty negotiations by the American nation after the Revolution. The plan had been secretly negotiated at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1778 between William Lee, American commissioner to Berlin and Jean de Neufville, an Amsterdam banker professing to act on behalf of the city and was to be concluded when England acknowledged America as a free nation. A detailed treaty it contains thirty four articles outlining terms of trade between the two nations, and the form of passports and certificates for ships. It is subscribed Jean de Neufville and Samuel W. Stockton, the American lawyer, diplomat and public servant who was later to serve as Secretary of State of New Jersey from 1794 to 1795. It is followed by transcriptions (also in Dutch and English) of the associated diplomatic correspondence. An edition of the Dutch text only appeared also in 1780 which Sabin (65110) refers to as the ‘Original edition’, though it is not clear on what basis.
The draft was inadvertently made public in 1780 when the vessel in which the bearer of it, Henry Laurens, South Carolina merchant, planter, and revolutionary leader who served as President of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778 was apprehended at sea by the English. The Plan was found among the effects he threw overboard on his capture and Laurens was imprisoned for treason. The treaty was not strictly illegal, but the British Government was able to construe it and other retrieved papers detailing Dutch financial aid to the rebellious American colonies as being equivalent to actual aggression. Although it was neither authorised nor sanctioned by the States-General nor by Congress, it served as a pretext for England’s declaration of war against the Netherlands.
It was handed to the Dutch Estates General by the British Ambassador, General Joseph Yorke, debated and published here as one of the Extracts of the resolutions of the Estates General of the Netherlands. Sabin 63286: ‘Official edition of the Preparatory Plan’ (projected 1778 at Aix-la-Chapelle), with the correspondence relating to it, as it was presented by the Chev. Yorke, as found with the papers of Mr. Laurens, to the Prince of Orange, and sent by the States General to the Provinces. The subscription of the Treaty is changed in all the reproductions — Müller’. Cf. Sabin 65110 for the original Dutch edition (two editions, also 1780).