[Coyet's instruction for his mission to England was dated 25 November 1654. The immediate cause which prompted his despatch was a rumour that Cromwell had expressed surprise that he had not been invited to mediate between Sweden and Poland—an idea which Charles X was anxious to scotch before it was formally raised. His instruction ordered him to settle matters which had been left for future decision in Whitelocke's treaty of Uppsala of 1654: compensation for loss and damage at the hands of English privateers; the thorny questions of contraband and sea-passes. He was also to raise—but not to decide, pending the arrival of Christer Bonde as ambassador extraordinary—a number of additional points, most of which were not new: Swedish participation in the herring fishery off the English and Scottish coasts; a possible English staple somewhere in the Swedish dominions; the diversion of England's Russia trade to Swedish ports, where the duty was only 2%; and in addition the possibility of opening the trade to Barbados and America to Swedish vessels in exchange for a liberty to trade with Livonia and Ingria, with a hint that it might be to England's advantage if Sweden should obtain possession of Polish Prussia.

[Bonde's instructions are dated 14 June 1655, and were supplemented by secret instructions dated 15 June.

By the former, he was ordered, in general, to complete what had been left unsettled in Whitelocke's treaty of 1654; was to do everything possible to ensure that commerce should be free from interruption; to draw up a list of contraband goods which should exclude copper, iron, tar, grain and timber, but should include all weapons of war, soldiers, horses and cloth; to reach agreement on a form of sea-pass; to seek access to English possessions in America, and to the herring and cod fisheries. He was further to try to divert English trade to Russia from Archangel to the Baltic harbours under Swedish control, the duties on such trade not to exceed 2%; to offer permission for customs-free deposit of Russian goods in Ingria or Livonia, with the right to sell them retail; and to emphasize England's obligation, in terms of the Whitelocke treaty, to assist Charles X against any disturbers of the trade in the Baltic or North Sea, in view of the fact that war with Poland was imminent.

I have thought it unnecessary to trouble Y.M. with any letters from the places which I have been forced to touch at in the course of my journey, since they afforded nothing worth communicating to Y.M., other than to report what might have been obstacles to it; and of this I have written to the chancellor, presuming that he will have given the information to Y.M.