This paper explores the “Treaty of Peace and Commerce” which was joined by the Eyalet of Algiers and the Kingdom of Sweden in 1729. The author details the day-to-day negotiations which built up to the final accord (the first of its kind between Sweden and a state in the Islamic world) as well as the measures which the Swedes took to ensure that the agreement was a success. Of particular note is that the Treaty did not come at the end of what could be understood, in today’s terms, to be a war. Breaking with the dominant tradition which dates Sweden- Algeria relations to the post-independence era, this paper roots these ties firmly in the 17th Century, at the first attempts of Sweden to pay ransom for its sailors held captive in Algerian jails.