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In the early modern period and for some time afterwards, the lowest of diplomatic ranks (sense 1). Agents were maintained at courts where commercial advantages might be obtained by their presence but political interests were marginal. George III, the eighteenth century British king forced to grant independence to his American colonies, thought that this was the most appropriate level at which to establish relations with the new United States.
In conjunction with ‘diplomatic’, the term is used to refer to a diplomat.
A representative of a state or territory who lacks diplomatic status. In some circumstances such an agent may be termed an ‘agent-general’ or ‘delegate-general’. See non-diplomatic agent.
A clerk in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century Foreign Office employed by a British diplomat as his private banker. Attempts to abolish the ‘agency system’, as it was known, had been made since the latter decades of the eighteenth century. However, in the face of strong resistance in the Foreign Office, where it was regarded as providing useful supplementary income to official salaries, it did not finally come to an end until 1870.
An abbreviated way of referring to a secret agent. See also agent in place. |
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