Peter carried several artificers with him out of France, in the same manner as he had done out of England; for every nation, which he visited, thought it an honour to assist him in his design of introducing the arts and sciences into his new-formed state, and to be instrumental in this species of new creation.
In this expedition, he drew up a sketch of a treaty of commerce with France, and which he put into the hands of his ministers at Holland, as soon as he returned thither, but it was not signed by the French ambassador, Chateauneuf, till the 15th August, 1717, at the Hague. This treaty not only related to trade, but likewise to bringing about peace in the North. The king of France and the elector of Brandenburg accepted of the office of mediators, which Peter offered them. This was sufficient to give the king of England to understand, that the czar was not well pleased with him, and crowned the hopes of baron Gortz, who from that time, left nothing undone to bring about a union between Charles and Peter, to stir up new enemies against George I. and to assist cardinal Alberoni in his schemes in every part of Europe. Gortz now paid and received visits publicly from the czar's ministers at the Hague, to whom he declared, that he was invested with full power from the court of Sweden to conclude a peace.
The czar suffered Gortz to dispose all his batteries, without assisting therein himself, and was prepared either to make peace with the king of Sweden, or to carry on the war, and continued still in alliance with the kings of Denmark, Poland, and Russia, and in appearance with the elector of Hanover.
It was evident, that he had no fixed design, but that of profiting of conjunctures and circumstances, and that his main object was to complete the general establishments he had set on foot. He well knew, that the negotiations and interests of princes, their leagues, their friendships, their jealousies, and their enmities, were subject to change with each revolving year, and that frequently not the smallest traces remain of the greatest efforts in politics. A simple manufactory, well established, is often of more real advantage to a state than twenty treaties.
Peter having joined the czarina, who was waiting for him in Holland, continued his travels with her. They crossed Westphalia, and arrived at Berlin in a private manner. The new king of Prussia was as much an enemy to ceremonious vanities, and the pomp of a court, as Peter himself; and it was an instructive lesson to the etiquette of Vienna and Spain, the punctilio of Italy, and the politesse of the French court, to see a king, who only made use of a wooden elbow-chair, who went always in the dress of a common soldier, and who had banished from his table, not only all the luxuries, but even the more moderate indulgences of life.