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→Negotiating Commerical relationships with with Spain and France
Adams presented a more formal draft of a general model treaty before the Continental Congress on July 18, 1776. The template treaty sought reciprocal trade terms, although not free trade, and made no mention of direct military assistance. Congress adopted a formal version of the Model Treaty on September 17. On September 24, Congress drafted instructions to commissioners on how to negotiate a treaty with France based on the template provided in the Model Treaty. The commissioners were also instructed to seek a most-favored-nation trade clause in the absence of the slightly more liberal trade clauses of the Model Treaty, which could be construed as seeking a free trade agreement between the two countries.
====Negotiating Commerical Commercial relationships with with Spain and France====
The commissioners were to seek additional military aid, and also to assure any Spanish diplomats present that the United States had no designs on Spanish territory. Spain was a traditional ally of France and would join the war in the hopes of regaining territories lost in earlier wars. The commissioners believed that Spain had an interest in maintaining a secure frontier on the northern border of the United States. The Congress then appointed commissioners to execute the terms on September 25.
The United States would have to wait until early 1778 for France to formally agree to a treaty. The formal agreement differed from the Model Treaty in that the two countries granted each other most-favored-nation trading privileges, and also allowed for the presence of consuls in each other’s cities. Also, the Treaty of Alliance provided additional military stipulations relating to the terms of the alliance, ceding any military gains in North America to the United States, and any gains increases in the Caribbean to France. More importantly, France agreed not to seek peace with Great Britain without British acknowledgment of American independence, and neither allied country was to seek peace without the other’s consent. The Treaty encouraged other countries to join the alliance, but only if both French and American negotiators were present. The 1778 treaty also included a secret clause allowing for articles to be altered if Spain chose to join the alliance.
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