bad trick, (_tour_) and violated his repeated promises to them. They
do not in the least spare M. Berenger and M. Merchant, who conduct the
French affairs here in the absence of the Duc de la Vauguyon, but hold
this language openly and freely to them. These gentlemen have
sometimes found it hard to bear, and have winced, and sometimes even
threatened; but their answer has been more mortifying still; "Do as
you please, drive the Republic back into the arms of England, if you
will. Suppress all the friends of France, if you choose it." And some
of them have said, "we will go to America." They all say, that France
had the power to have saved them. That the acquisition of Tobago was
no equivalent to France for the loss of the Republic, &c. &c. &c. They
are all highly pleased with the conduct of their own Ambassador,
Brantzen, with his activity, intelligence, and fidelity. They all say,
that they would send a Minister to London to negotiate there, if they
were sure of being able to carry an election for a man they could
depend upon. But the Court here would have so much influence in the
choice, that they would run a risk of sending a man, who would
insensibly lead them into a revival of the old ties with England,
which, they say, is enslaving the Republic to that kingdom.
I learn here from all quarters, a confirmation of what I had learned
before at Paris from M. Brantzen and the Duc de la Vauguyon, viz. that
the Duke of Manchester had given them no answer, nor said a word to
them for six weeks, in answer to the propositions they had made; among
which was an offer of an equivalent for Negapatnam. They offered some
establishments in Sumatra and Surat. Lately the Duke of Manchester has
received a courier, and has given an answer, that a real equivalent
might be accepted. No answer is given to any other point, and this is
vague; so that another courier must go to London and return.
Parliament is now up, and perhaps the Ministers may now be more
attentive, and less timorous.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
Amsterdam, July 28th, 1783.
Sir,
I find, upon inquiry, that there are in this Republic, at Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, and Dort, near one hundred and thirty sugar-houses. The
whole of the raw sugars produced in Surinam, Berbice, Essequibo, and
Demarara, are wrought in these houses; and, besides, raw sugars were
purchased in Bordeaux and Nantes, after being imported from the French
islands, in French bottoms. Raw sugars were also purchased in London,
which went under the general name of Barbadoes sugars, although they
were the growth of all the English Islands, and imported to London in
British bottoms. I have learnt further, that great quantities of raw
Brazil sugars were purchased in Lisbon, and that these were cheaper
than any of the others. All these raw sugars were imported into
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Dort, and there manufactured for
exportation. We must endeavor to obtain a share in this trade,
especially with Lisbon, or the Western Islands.
Since it is certain, that neither Portugal, France, nor England has
been able to manufacture all their raw sugars, but each of them sold
considerable quantities to the Dutch, I suppose that we may
undoubtedly purchase such sugars in future in Lisbon, Bordeaux,
Nantes, London, and perhaps Ireland, and carry them where we please,
either home to America, or to Amsterdam, or to any part of Europe, and
there sell them, and in this way promote our own carrying-trade, as
well as enable ourselves to make remittances. I cannot see why the
English, or French, should be averse to their sugars going to America
directly; and if they insist upon carrying them in their own ships,
we may still have enough of them. The Dutch have the most pressing
commercial motives to bring home their West India produce; yet they
would really gain the most by opening a free communication with us,
because they would the most suddenly make their colonies flourish by
it.
Molasses and rum we shall have, probably, from all the islands,
English, French, and Dutch, in our own bottoms, unless the three
nations should agree together to keep the whole trade of their islands
in their own ships, which is not likely.
I have made all the inquiries I could, and have sown all the seeds I
could, in order to give a spur to our loan. Three thousand obligations
have been sold, and the other two thousand are signed; but at this
time there is a greater scarcity of money than ever was known. The
scarcity is so great, that the agio of the bank, which is commonly at
four or five per cent, fell to one and a half. The Directors, at
length, shut up the bank, and it continues shut. The English omnium,
which at first was sold for eight or ten per cent profit, fell to one
and a half. The scarcity of money will continue until the arrival of
the Spanish flotilla at Cadiz. Seven eighths of the treasures of that
flotilla will come here, and make money plenty. Then we may expect,
that my obligations will sell.
In the meantime, I have great pleasure in assuring you, that there is
not one foreign loan open in this Republic, which is in so good
credit, or goes so quick as mine. The Empress of Russia opened a loan
of five millions, about the same time that I opened mine. She is far
from having obtained three millions of it. Spain opened a loan with
the House of Hope, at the same time, for two millions only, and you
may depend upon it, it is very far from being full. Not one quarter
part of the loan of France upon life-rents, advantageous as it is to
the lender, is full. In short, there is not one power in Europe, whose
credit is so good here as ours. Russia and Spain, too, allow of
facilities to undertakers and others, in disposing of their
obligations, much more considerable than ours; yet all does not
succeed. You will see persons and letters in America, that will
affirm, that the Spanish loan is full, and that France and Spain can
have what money they please here. Believe me, this is all stockjobbing
gasconade. I have made very particular inquiries, and find the
foregoing account to be the truth. Of all the sons of men, I believe
the stockjobbers are the greatest liars. I know it has been given out,
that the Spanish loan, which was opened at Hope's, was full the first
day. This I know has been affirmed in the hearing of Americans, with a
confidence peculiar, and with a design, I suppose, that it should be
written or reported to Congress. But I am now assured, that it is so
far from being true, that it is not near full to this hour. Let me beg
of you, Sir, to give Mr Morris an extract of this, because I am so
pressed for time, that I cannot write to him.
Upon further inquiry concerning sugars, I find, that the Dutch were
used to purchase annually considerable quantities of the raw sugars of
Spain, as well as of France, England and Portugal. Some of these they
obtained by a clandestine trade between Curacoa and Havana, and St
Domingo; but the greater part were purchased at Cadiz.
I suppose our merchants and musters of vessels will be as adroit at
inventing and executing projects of illicit trade, as others. But
this is a resource, that Congress and the States cannot depend on, nor
take into their calculations. Illicit trade will ever bear but a small
proportion to that which is permitted. And our governments should take
their measures for obtaining by legal and honorable means from Spain,
Portugal, France, England, Holland, and Denmark, all the productions
which our people may want for consumption, for manufacture, and for
exportation.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT MORRIS.
Amsterdam, July 28th, 1783.
Sir,
Upon inquiry of those who best know, I see no probability of success
from any application to authority in this country, for reasons which I
have explained to our Minister of Foreign Affairs. Our only resource
is in the public opinion, and the favor of the nation.
I know of nothing which would operate so favorably upon the public, as
the arrival of a few vessels with cargoes of American produce,
addressed to your bankers, and appropriated to the payment of
interest. The report of such an event would greatly augment our
credit, by spreading the opinion of our ability and disposition to
pay.
It would be presumption in me, at this distance, to undertake to
advise you, who are upon the spot, and much better informed. But I beg
leave to suggest the question, whether an application of Congress to
the States would not succeed? Suppose Congress should represent to the
States the necessity of an exertion, in order to obtain a loan at
present, to enable you to satisfy the most urgent demands of the army,
and other public creditors, until the States can agree upon some
permanent establishment, and should recommend to each State to furnish
a cargo of its produce, in proportion to its rate upon the list. For
example, South Carolina and Georgia a quantity of rice or indigo;
Virginia and Maryland, of tobacco; Pennsylvania, of wheat or flour;
and the Northern States, of fish or any other thing. Suppose these
cargoes, which need not be expensive for the Thirteen States, should
be sent to Amsterdam or anywhere else in Europe, the proceeds of sale
to be remitted to Amsterdam to your bankers. The reputation of this,
if well planned, adopted, and executed, would give a strong impulsion
to your loan, if adopted here.
I am but just arrived, and have not yet seen our bankers. Saturday and
Sunday are usually spent at country seats. But before I leave this
place, I shall be able to inform you more precisely, whether you may
depend on anything from hence. No pains of mine shall be spared. The
British stocks are so low that we may hope for something. If a
Minister is sent to London, you should give him a commission to borrow
money. If he conducts the matter with secrecy and caution, he may
probably obtain a considerable sum there. There are monied men in that
country who wish us well. There are others who may easily be inspired
with more faith in our funds, than they can rationally have in their
own. If upon advising with proper persons, he should not judge it
prudent to open a loan there, he might easily put things in a train
for some individuals to purchase obligations in your loan in
Amsterdam. So dismal are the prospects in England, that many men are
on the wing to fly, and some would be willing to transfer their
property across the Atlantic.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
The Hague, July 30th, 1783.
Sir,
I have been the more particular in my letters to you concerning that
extensive manufacture and commerce of refined sugars in this country,
because the proximity of all the sugar colonies to us renders a share
in it naturally useful and convenient, both to us and them. Fifty
thousand hogsheads of raw sugar are annually wrought in this Republic,
and exported at a great profit to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia,
Poland, and Italy. At Amsterdam I visited a number of respectable
merchants, in order to discover their sentiments concerning the
communication between us and their Islands and sugar colonies. They
all agree, that St Eustatia and Curacoa are and will be commercial
Islands, open and free to all our vessels. St Martin's is divided
between the French and Danes and the Dutch, whose share of it does not
flourish. The colonies upon the continent, Surinam, Berbice, Demarara,
and Essequibo, are at a greater distance from us. But they will be
open to our vessels and their cargoes, because they all agree, that
those colonies cannot subsist without our horses, lumber and
provisions, nor without the sale to us of their molasses. We shall be
allowed to take in return molasses, with which some quantities of
sugar, coffee, and other produce are always smuggled, as they say. But
although nothing has been as yet determined, it is the general
opinion, that the produce of the colonies must be brought home in
Dutch ships, as heretofore, molasses excepted.
From the Secretary of the West India Company I have obtained a few
minutes, in so bad French, that I almost despair of rendering them
intelligible. I have attempted it, however, in the following
translation, viz.
"In the grant of the West India Company, renewed, or more
properly newly erected, in the year 1700, continued in 1730,
prolonged afterwards in the year 1760 for two years, and in
the year 1762, from the first of January to the thirtyfirst
of December, 1791, are found the limits fixed, only for the
inhabitants of these Seven United Provinces, under the name
of the United Company of these Provinces, upon the coasts and
country of Africa, computing from the Tropic of Cancer to the
southern latitude of the Equinoctial Line, with all the
Islands in this district, situated upon the said coast, and
particularly the Islands of St Thomas, Annebon, Islands of
Principia and Fernando Po, as also the places of Essequibo
and Baumenora, situated upon the Continental Coasts of
America, as also the Islands of Curacoa, Amaba and Buen Aire.
All the other limits of the ancient grant being open for the
commerce of all the inhabitants of the Republic, without
exception, upon condition, however, that if the Company,
oriental and occidental, should judge proper to navigate to
the Islands situated between the coasts of Africa and
America, beginning at the Ascension and further south, or any
of them, and should occupy it before any other should have a
private grant, with exclusion of all others for so long time
as it shall occupy its places, and in case they should
desist, these places should return under the second class,
open for the navigation of every individual of the Republic,
paying an acknowledgment, &c. That the said particulars,
trading in the said districts, shall be obliged to
acknowledge the Western Company, and to pay them for the
right of convoy, and consequently in form of acknowledgment,
viz. for the productions and merchandises for the West
Indies, two per cent, and returning from thence into these
Provinces, two per cent more for the commodities in return.
And further, the ships navigating to places farther distant
in America, contained in the ancient grant, both in going and
returning, should pay five florins per last, or more or less
as their High Mightinesses shall judge proper to determine
hereafter; observing, nevertheless, that these five florins
per last shall not be demanded of ships navigating to the
Caribee Islands, which shall pay the ordinary duty for convoy
to the Colleges of the Admiralty from which they sail, and
the said private navigators shall be held, moreover, for the
satisfaction of the Western Company, to give sufficient
caution, that they will not navigate, nor cause to be
navigated, the places contained in the first class, ceded to
the Company with exclusion of all others. And if any one is
found to act contrary, and to navigate to any place situated
in the prescribed limits, and granted to the Company, his
ship and cargo shall be confiscated and attacked in force, by
the ships belonging to the said Company; and if such ships
and merchandises or commodities, shall be sold or entered
into any other country or foreign port, the owner and his
accomplice shall be liable to execution, for the value of the
said ships and merchandises or commodities.
"The Company has also the right to require an acknowledgment
of all those who shall navigate, import or export any
merchandise to or from places belonging to the said Company,
notwithstanding they may be subject, and may belong to the
domination of other Kings or Princes, situated within the
limits stipulated in the grant; and especially of every
foreign vessel, bringing any commodities or merchandises from
the West Indies, or the limits stipulated in the grants into
the Provinces, whether upon its own account, or freight, or
on commission, whether such foreign vessel shall come
directly from the West Indies; and the limits of the grant,
into the Provinces, or whether she shall have carried her
cargo to other countries or kingdoms, for what reason soever
this may be done. Excepting only in case the merchandises of
the proprietor should by negotiation be changed in nature,
and that the duty of this country fixed to the place should
be paid, which any one alleging shall be obliged to prove
sufficiently, according to the amount of the merchandises.
Declaring, moreover, for the further elucidation of the said
grant, that under the name of the New Low Countries, in
consequence of the three per cent, which the Company has a
right to require for the merchandises sent there, or brought
from thence, is understood that part of North America, which
extends itself west and south of the northern part of
Newfoundland as far as the Cape of Florida, and for what
regards the payment of the two per cent under the name of the
West Indies, to be computed from the Cape of Florida, to the
river Oronoco, and the Islands of Curacoa. For what concerns
the other places of America, contained in the most ancient
and precedent grant, in regard to the five florins per last,
upon the vessels there navigating, shall be understood all
the Carribee Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Porto
Rico, as also all the other coasts and countries, computing
from the river Oronoco aforesaid, by the straits of Magellan,
Le Maire, or other passages or straits, situated under these,
as far as the strait of Aryan, both upon the sea of the
north, and the Islands situated upon the other side, and
between them, as also the southern countries, situated
between the two meridians, touching at the east the Cape of
Good Hope, and in the west the eastern part of New Guinea,
inclusively."
If this paper is not very clear to Congress, it is not more so to me,
and perhaps to the Dutch themselves. There is a dispute likely to
arise between the West India Company and the College of the Admiralty
about it, which will be explained further as it proceeds, by whatever
Minister you may send here.
Upon the whole matter of our communications with the European
establishments in the West Indies; we shall carry freely our
commodities to the French and Dutch, excepting, perhaps, flour to the
French, which however will be carried, I suppose, to St Lucia and Port
Royal, as well as St Eustatia and Curacoa, St Thomas's and St
Martin's, and there sold to any nation that will purchase it. Molasses
and rum we shall bring away freely from the French and Dutch. And if
we can obtain of them the liberty of carrying sugars, coffee, &c. from
their possessions in the West Indies to their ports in Europe, giving
bonds with surety to land them in such ports, it will be as much as we
can expect. If they will allow raw sugars, coffee, cotton, &c. to be
sent freely to the United States in their own vessels, this would be
an advantage for us, though not so considerable as to bring them in
ours. What the English will do is uncertain. We are not to take the
late proclamation for a law of the Medes. The Ministry who made it
are not firm in their seats. If Shelburne comes in we shall do better;
and, to be prepared to take advantage of so probable an event, you
should have a Minister ready. We have one infallible resource, if we
can unite in laying a duty or a prohibition. But this measure must not
be hastily taken, because by negotiation, I apprehend, the point may
be carried in England. To this end it may be proper to instruct your
Minister, and authorise him to say, that the States will find
themselves obliged, against their inclination, to lay a prohibition or
heavy duty upon all West India goods imported, and all American
productions exported in British bottoms, if the trade is not regulated
by treaty upon an equitable footing.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
The Hague, July 31st, 1783.
Sir,
The last evening at Court in the house in the Grove, where all the
foreign Ministers supped, the Count Montagnini de Mirabel, the
Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of Sardinia, took an
opportunity to enter largely into conversation with me. As he and I
were at a party of politics, while the greatest part of the company
were at cards, for two or three hours, we ran over all the world, but
nothing occurred worth repeating except what follows.
The Count said, that his advice to Congress would be to write a
circular letter to every power in Europe, as soon as the definitive
treaty should be signed, and transmit with it a printed copy of the
treaty. In the letter, Congress should announce, that on the 4th of
July, 1776, the United States had declared themselves a sovereign
State, under the style and title of the United States of America; that
France, on the 6th of February, 1778, had acknowledged them; that the
States-General had done the same on the 19th of April, 1782; that
Great Britain, on the 30th of November, 1782, had signed with them a
treaty of peace, in which she had fully acknowledged their
sovereignty; that Sweden had entered into a treaty with them, on the
5th of February, 1783; and that Great Britain had concluded the
definitive treaty under the mediation of the two Empires, if that
should be the fact, &c. Such a notification to all the other powers
would be a regular procedure, a piece of politeness, which would be
very well received, and the letter would be respectfully answered by
every power in the world, and these written answers would be explicit,
and undeniable acknowledgments of our sovereignty.
It might have been proper to make this communication in form,
immediately after the declaration of independence; it might have been
more proper to do it after the signature of the provisional treaty;
but that it was expected it would be done after the definitive treaty.
That these circular letters might be transmitted to your Ministers for
peace, or such of them as may remain, or to any of your Ministers in
Europe, to be by them delivered to the Ministers at the Court where
they are, or transmitted any other way. That Congress must be very
exact in the etiquette of titles, as this was indispensable, and the
letters could not be answered nor received without it. That we might
have these titles at the Count de Vergennes' office with precision,
&c.
The Count then proceeded to commerce, and said, that all the cabinets
of Europe had lately turned their views to commerce, so that we should
be attended to and respected by all of them. He thought we should find
our account in a large trade in Italy, every part of which had a
constant demand for our tobacco, and salt-fish, at least. The
dominions of the King, his master, could furnish us in exchange,
oranges, citrons, olives, oil, raisins, figs, anchovies, coral, lead,
sulphur, alum, salt, marble of the finest quality and gayest colors,
manufactures of silk, especially silk stockings twenty per cent
cheaper than France, hemp, and cordage. He said, we might have great
advantages in Italy in another respect. We had it in our power to
become the principal carriers for the people of Italy, who have little
skill or inclination for navigation or commerce. The (_cabotage_)
carrying-trade of Italy had been carried on by the English, French,
and Dutch; the English had now lost it, the French had some of it, but
the Dutch the most, who made an immense profit of it; for to his
knowledge they sold in the Baltic, and even in Holland, many Italian
productions, at a profit of five or six for one. That we should have
the advantage of them all. By bringing our tobacco and fish to Italy,
we might unload at some of their ports, take in cargoes upon freight
for other ports of Italy, and thus make coasting voyages, until we had
made up our cargoes for return, or we might take in cargoes on freight
for Germany, or the Baltic. The Dutch, he said, would be the greatest
losers by this rivalry, but as long as the Italians and Americans
would be honestly gainers, neither need be anxious for that. That
there was a very good port in his master's dominions, which was
perfectly free, where we might go in and out at pleasure, without
being subject to duties, searches, or visits.