Diplomatic gift

[5] The memoirs of James Porter criticize the submission of the foreign ambassadors to Ottoman rulers: "Whoever is acquainted with the Oriental practice, and knows the ostentation, pride, and haughtiness of the Turkish government, must know that they look upon, and consider such presents as actual tributes.

Baron Paget once said "If we can't find money to give the ministers their usual presents ... we who have ever passed with an esteem superior to all other nations shall make ourselves the most contemptible.

"[This quote needs a citation] Similar observations were made by Henry Grenville: "money is the supreme mover of all measures in this corrupt, irregular, ill-conducted government; however that might reflect upon a Christian state, it carries no infamy with it here.

[8] Foulis made four gold chains for ambassadors attending the baptism of Prince Henry in 1594, those given to Christian Bernekow and Steen Bille of Denmark were heavier and more costly than those given to Adam Crusius from Brunswick and Joachim von Bassewitz from Mecklenberg.

A French ambassador at the court of James VI and I, Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont, was rumoured to have caused offence by unexpectedly requesting valuable gifts.

[13] A Spanish ambassador involved in the negotiations for the Treaty of London in 1604, Juan Fernández de Velasco, Constable of Castile, commissioned jewels in Antwerp as gifts to distribute at the English court.

[18] In the mid 19th century, the Chinese diplomat Qiying gifted intimate[clarification needed] portraits of himself to representatives from Italy, Great Britain, the United States, and France as part of treaty negotiations with the West over control of land and trade in China after the First Opium War.