In 1830 France occupied Algiers and in the same year forced a new commercial treaty on the bey of Tunis. This treaty reinforced the ban on privateering and furthered the internationalization of the Tunisian economy. Under its provisions European governments with interests in Tunisia could establish consulates anywhere in the country regardless of the bey's wishes, government monopolies on indigenous industries were abolished, and European merchants were free to trade directly with Tunisian subjects, eliminating the necessity of purchasing export permits from the Tunisian government while European consuls retained the right to judge their own nationals. The treaty effectively nullified the advantages of Hamuda Bey's commercial policies that had stimulated and protected indigenous commerce during his reign. Furthermore, certain provisions in the treaty made France a ‘special commercial partner’ to the bey on highly advantageous terms to France, and rival Italian and English entrepreneurs were eager to join in such a partnership.

During this era of European commercial expansion, relationships between European and Tunisian authorities changed not only in political and economic spheres but in institutions of medicine and public health. In the eighteenth century, the beys had complete control over quarantining but by the 1830s, European consuls assumed management. This was a new trend of shifting responsibilities from Muslim to European hands. Later in the century European colonial historians were to claim that their consuls had to step in to guide Tunisia in quarantine procedures because of the beys’ heedlessness in the face of epidemic diseases.