This article examines how Basel’s merchants leveraged the city’s neutral status to maintain and expand trade during the War of the Spanish Succession. Basel became an important entrepot by using transnational cooperative networks to circumvent trade restrictions between France and the Holy Roman Empire. By analyzing the records of the Direktorium der Kaufmannschaft (merchants’ directorate) in Basel, this study highlights how the exchange of trust, information, gifts, and financial incentives with subaltern actors in neighboring territories of the Empire facilitated cooperation and enabled Basel’s merchants to capitalize on the city’s geographic position and neutrality.