Drawing on French, Dutch and English diplomatic papers, State Papers, and private manuscript collections, Morgan reconstructs the bargaining that ended the Nine Years War and shows how far commerce and colonies shaped a settlement usually discussed in terms of Strasbourg, Luxembourg and the recognition of William III. Louis XIV's secret approaches to the Dutch carried commercial bait, notably the promised removal of the fifty sols duty on shipping, and Amsterdam merchants pressed for peace as war finance failed on every side. English instructions treated a treaty of trade and navigation with France, and redress for French seizures in Hudson's Bay, as the questions that mattered most to their subjects. Deadlock among professional negotiators broke only when Portland and Boufflers met directly. Morgan concludes that the maritime powers won little that lasted, since France retook the bay almost at once, yet Ryswick set up the reckoning that Utrecht completed.