Arguing Like an Orator and Bargaining Like a Merchant. Negotiation Strategies during the Peace Congress of Carlowitz (1698–99)

Abstract Over the past two decades, the field of early modern diplomacy, especially within the framework of New Diplomatic History, has experienced growing interest in the discourses, strategies, and techniques employed by various actors to achieve their objectives during diplomatic encounters. However, most of the produced research remains narrowly focused on western and central Europe, unintentionally overlooking the more widely shared diplomatic cultures of negotiation across early modern western Eurasia. By centering on the Peace Congress of Carlowitz (1698–99), this article seeks to provide a more thorough perspective on peace-making negotiation strategies that transcended cultural boundaries in the late seventeenth century. It approaches and analyzes the different negotiating methods of the congress participants through the lens of the notions of arguing and bargaining , maintaining that the predominantly oral nature of the peace talks led the actors to alternate between or combine diverse negotiating “personas” according to the circumstances: the eloquent “Orator,” able at using an established supra-cultural diplomatic vocabulary to justify his claims could supplant or complement the shrewd “Merchant,” skilled in engaging in transactional bargaining to secure the most favorable territorial outcomes.