As an aside I wonder what Poland's policy towards Britain was at that time?
Nearly 20 years later there happened something that could have spared Poland the fate of partitions. Wiliam Pitt the Younger wanted to curb Russia's strengh assuring at the same time safety to Turkey and Poland in order to restore the balance of power in Europe. So England, Prussia and Holland in coallition demanded that Russia signed a peace treaty with Turkey with the
status quo ante, but Catherine II refused saying Rusia must keep at least Oczaków and the lands towards the Dniestr river that she conquered on Turkey in 1788.
British ambassador in St. Petersburgh, Lord Whitworth, was convinced that time had come to force Catherine II to concessions. But England could only challange Russia if she could have assured timber supply for building her ships from another source than Russia. That other source of timber could only be Poland.
Poland would have been a beter trading partner to Britain than Russia (Britain's trade deficit with Russia was nearly one million pounds a year) as Poland imported a lot more of English produce, and a lot of Russian goods were originally from the eastern part of the Polish Cmmonwealth, shipped through the Russian port of Riga. William Pitt carried on talks on the issue with Franciszek Bukaty, the Polish ambassador in London, and with Michał Ogiński, the Polish representative in Hague. Any trade agreement between England and Poland implied the participation of Prussia, however, but Prussia, knowing its strong stance in the deal, let their partners know that they would cooperate only if Poland concedes the city of Gdańsk and the city of Toruń to them. In other words, the entire plan of Wiliam Pitt the Younger to curb Russia, to which plan he won Sweden, Turkey, Danmark and Holland, was based on the assumed ceding of Gdańsk and Toruń by Poland to Prussia.
(to be continued)
