Methuen Treaty Methuen Treaty The Methuen Treaty was a military and commercial treaty between England and Portugal that was signed in 1703 as part of the War of the Spanish Succession. The treaty stipulated that no tax higher than the tax charged for an equal amount of French wines could be charged for Portuguese wines "(but see below)" exported to England, and that no English textiles exported to Portugal would be charged any taxes, regardless of the geopolitical situation in each of the two nations (to ensure England would still accept Portuguese wine in periods when not at war with France). Results
Jay Treaty postponed it until the United States was strong enough to handle it. Bradford Perkins argued in 1955 that the treaty was the first to establish a special relationship between Britain and the United States, with a second installment under Lord Salisbury. In his view, the treaty worked for ten years to secure peace between Britain and America: "The decade may be characterized as the period of 'The First Rapprochement.'" As Perkins concludes, For about ten years there was peace on the frontier, joint recognition of the value of commercial intercourse, and even, by comparison with both preceding and succeeding epochs,