Materiały dotyczące gdańska w londyńskich zasobach archiwalnych proweniencji dyplomatycznej z pierwszej ćwierci XVIII wieku

Gdańsk was a rallying point for a British naval squadron that operated in the Baltic, during the Great Northern War. The Gdańsk port served also as the market supply for raw materials and boatbuilding accessories. There was an opinion that violations of the freedom of Gdańsk would destabilize trade, thus, maintaining the status quo was regarded as a key task of the British diplomacy in the region, which also watched over the interests of British merchandise. Envoys often visited Gdańsk, and some of them resided there permanently. Located in London’s The National Archives, the departments of the Foreign Office (FO) and State Papers – Foreign (SP) British diplomatic correspondence of the 18th c. is enormous and organized in the form of stapled, bound volumes of reports sent from the offices to London. There are also copies of the credentials and instructions issued by the secretariat of state. Loose fascicules: doublets, notes, various memorials happen rarely. In a separate fascicule (SP 102/43 – Dantzick and Courland) are to be found letters of the municipality of Gdansk to the kings of England and copies of the responses. An indispensable field of research on British diplomacy is also collections of manuscripts of the British Library. For example, the fond Additional Manuscripts contains archives related to the Baltic squadrons of Admiral John Norris.