I left my own house in October, 1783, it was to attend Congress as a
member, and in expectation of returning in five or six months. In the
month of May following, however, I was desired to come to Europe, as
member of a commission, which was to continue two years only. I came
off immediately, without going home to make any other arrangements in my
affairs, thinking they would not suffer greatly before I should return
to them. Before the close of the two years, Doctor Franklin retiring
from his charge here, Congress were pleased to name me to it; so that I
have been led on by events to an absence of five years, instead of five
months. In the mean time, matters of great moment to others as well as
myself, and which can be arranged by nobody but myself, will await no
longer. Another motive, of still more powerful co-agency on my mind, is
the necessity of carrying my family back to their friends and country.
I must, therefore, ask of Congress a leave of short absence. Allowing
three months on the sea, going and coming, and two months at my own
house, which will suffice for my affairs, I need not be from Paris but
between five and six months. I do not foresee any thing which can suffer
during my absence. The consular convention is finished, except as to the
exchange of ratification, which will be the affair of a day only. The
difference with Schweighaeuser and Dobree, relative to our arms, will be
finished. That of Denmark, if ever finished, will probably be long spun
out. The ransom of the Algerine captives is the only matter likely to
be on hand. That cannot be set on foot till the money is raised in
Holland, and an order received for its application: probably these will
take place, so that I may set it into motion, before my departure; if
not, I can still leave it on such a footing, as to be put into motion
the moment the money can be paid. And even when the leave of Congress
shall be received, I will not make use of it, if there is any thing
of consequence which may suffer; but would, postpone my departure till
circumstances will admit it. But should these be as I expect they will,
it will be vastly desirable to me to receive the permission immediately,
so that I may go out as soon as the vernal equinox is over, and be sure
of my return in good time and season in the fall. Mr. Short, who had had
thoughts of returning to America, will postpone that return till I come
back. His talents and character allow me to say, with confidence, that
nothing will suffer in his hands. The friendly dispositions of Monsieur
de Montmorin would induce him readily to communicate with Mr. Short in
his present character; but should any of his applications be necessary
to be laid before the Council, they might suffer difficulty: nor could
he attend the diplomatic societies, which are the most certain sources
of good intelligence. Would Congress think it expedient to remove the
difficulties, by naming him secretary of legation, so that he would act
of course as _chargé des affaires_ during my absence? It would be just,
that the difference between the salary of a secretary and a secretary of
legation should cease, as soon as he should cease to be charged with the
affairs of the United States; that is to say, on my return: and he would
expect that. So that this difference for five or six months would be an
affair of about one hundred and seventy guineas only, which would be not
more than equal to the additional expense that would be brought on him
necessarily by the change of character. I mention these particulars,
that Congress may see the end as well as beginning of the proposition,
and have only to add, ‘their will be done.’ Leave for me being obtained,
I will ask it, Sir, of your friendship, to avail yourself of various
occasions to the ports of France and England to convey me immediate
notice of it, and relieve me as soon as possible from the anxiety of
expectation, and the uncertainty in which I shall be. We have been in
daily expectation of hearing of the death of the King of England. Our
latest news are of the 11th. He had then been despaired of for three or
four days; but as my letter is to pass through England, you will have
later accounts of him than that can give you. I send you the newspapers
to this date, and have the honor to be, with the greatest esteem and
respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
P. S. The last crop of corn in France has been so short, that they
apprehend want. Mr. Necker desires me to make known this scarcity to our
merchants, in hopes they would send supplies. I promised him I would. If
it could be done without naming him, it would be agreeable to him, and
probably advantageous to the adventurers. T. J.
[The annexed are the observations on the subject of admitting our
whale-oil in the markets of France, referred to in the preceding
letter.]
Whale-oil enters, as a raw material, into several branches of
manufacture, as of wool, leather, soap: it is used also in painting,
architecture, and navigation. But its great consumption is in lighting
houses and cities. For this last purpose, however, it has a powerful
competitor in the vegetable oils. These do well in warm, still weather,
but they fix with cold, they extinguish easily with the wind, their crop
is precarious, depending on the seasons, and to yield the same light,
a larger wick must be used, and greater quantity of oil consumed.
Estimating all these articles of difference together, those employed in
lighting cities find their account in giving about twenty-five per
cent, more for whale than for vegetable oils. But higher than this the
whale-oil, in its present form, cannot rise; because it then becomes
more advantageous to the city lighters to use others. This competition,
then, limits its price, higher than which no encouragement can raise it;
and it becomes, as it were, a law of its nature. But, at this low price,
the whale-fishery is the poorest business into which a merchant or
sailor can enter. If the sailor, instead of wages, has a part of what is
taken, he finds that this, one year with another, yields him less than
he could have got as wages in any other business. It is attended, too,
with great risk, singular hardships, and long absence from his family,
if the voyage is made solely at the expense of the merchant, he finds
that, one year with another, it does not reimburse him his expense. As
for example; an English ship of three hundred tons and forty-two hands
brings home, _communibus annis_, after four months’ voyage, twenty-five
tons of oil, worth four hundred and thirty-seven pounds ten shillings
sterling. But the wages of the officers and seamen will be four hundred
pounds; the outfit, then, and the merchants’ profit, must be paid by the
government: and it is accordingly on this idea, that the British bounty
is calculated. From the poverty of this business, then, it has happened,
that the nations who have taken it up have successively abandoned it.
The Basques began it: but though the most economical and enterprising of
the inhabitants of France, they could not continue it; and it is said,
they never employed more than thirty ships a year. The Dutch and Hanse
towns succeeded them. The latter gave it up long ago. The English
carried it on, in competition with the Dutch, during the last and
beginning of the present century: but it was too little profitable for
them, in comparison with other branches of commerce open to them.
In the mean time, the inhabitants of the barren island of Nantucket had
taken up this fishery, invited to it by the whales presenting themselves
on their own shore. To them, therefore, the English relinquished it,
continuing to them, as British subjects, the importation of their oils
into England, duty free, while foreigners were subject to a duty of
eighteen pounds five shillings sterling a ton. The Dutch were enabled
to continue it long, because, 1. They are so near the northern fishing
grounds, that a vessel begins her fishing very soon after she is out
of port. 2. They navigate with more economy than the other nations of
Europe. 3. Their seamen are content with lower wages: and, 4. Their
merchants, with a lower profit on their capital. Under all these
favorable circumstances, however, this branch of business, after long
languishing, is at length nearly extinct with them. It is said, they did
not send above half a dozen ships in pursuit of the whale this present
year. The _Nantuckois_, then, were the only people who exercised
this fishery to any extent at the commencement of the late war. Their
country, from its barrenness yielding no subsistence, they were obliged
to seek it in the sea which surrounded them. Their economy was more
rigorous than that of the Dutch. Their seamen, instead of wages, had a
share in what was taken: this induced them to fish with fewer hands,
so that each had a greater dividend in the profit; it made them more
vigilant in seeking game, bolder in pursuing it, and parsimonious in all
their expenses. London was their only market. When, therefore, by
the late revolution, they became aliens in Great Britain, they became
subject to the alien duty of eighteen pounds five shillings the ton of
oil, which being more than equal to the price of the common whale-oil,
they are obliged to abandon that fishery. So that this people, who,
before the war, had employed upwards of three hundred vessels a year in
the whale-fishery (while Great Britain had herself never employed one
hundred), have now almost ceased to exercise it. But they still had the
seamen, the most important material for this fishery; and they still
retained the spirit for fishing: so that, at the re-establishment
of peace, they were capable, in a very short time, of reviving their
fishery in all its splendor. The British government saw that the moment
was critical. They knew that their own share in that fishery was as
nothing: that the great mass of fishermen was left with a nation now
separated from them: that these fishermen, however, had lost their
ancient market; had no other resource within their country to which they
could turn and they hoped, therefore, they might, in the present moment
of distress, be decoyed over to their establishments, and be added
to the mass of their seamen. To effect this, they offered extravagant
advantages to all persons who should exercise the whale-fishery from
British establishments. But not counting with much confidence on a long
connection with their remaining possessions on the continent of America,
foreseeing that the _Nantuckois_ would settle in them, preferably, if
put on an equal footing with those of Great Britain, and that thus they
might have to purchase them a second time, they confined their high
offers to settlers in Great Britain. The _Nantuckois_, left without
resource by the loss of their market, began to think of removing to the
British dominions; some to Nova Scotia, preferring smaller advantages in
the neighborhood of their ancient country and friends; others to Great
Britain, postponing country and friends to high premiums. A vessel was
already arrived from Halifax to Nantucket, to take off some of those
who proposed to remove; two families had gone on board, and others
were going, when a letter was received there, which had been written
by Monsieur le Marquis de la Fayette, to a gentleman in Boston, and
transmitted by him to Nantucket. The purport of the letter was to
dissuade their accepting the British proposals, and to assure them that
their friends in France would endeavor to do something for them. This
instantly suspended their design: not another went on board, and the
vessel returned to Halifax with only the two families.
In fact the French government had not been inattentive to the views
of the British, nor insensible to the crisis. They saw the danger of
permitting five or six thousand of the best seamen existing, to be
transferred by a single stroke to the marine strength of their
enemy, and to carry over with them an art which they possessed almost
exclusively. The counterplan which they set on foot was to tempt the
_Nantuckois_, by high offers, to come and settle in France. This was in
the year 1785. The British, however, had in their favor, a sameness of
language, religion, laws, habits, and kindred. Nine families only, of
thirty-three persons in the whole, came to Dunkirk; so that this
project was not likely to prevent their emigration to the English
establishments, if nothing else had happened.
France had effectually aided in detaching the United States of America
from the force of Great Britain: but as yet they seemed to have indulged
only a silent wish to detach them from her commerce. They had done
nothing to induce that event. In the same year, 1785, while M. de
Calonne was in treaty with the _Nantuckois_, an estimate of the commerce
of the United States was submitted to the Count de Vergennes, and it
was shown, that, of three millions of pounds sterling, to which their
exports amounted, one third might be brought to France, and exchanged
against her productions and manufactures, advantageously for both
nations; provided the obstacles of prohibition, monopoly, and duty, were
either done away, or moderated as far as circumstances would admit. A
committee, which had been appointed to investigate a particular one of
these objects, was thereupon instructed to extend its researches to
the whole, and see what advantages and facilities the government could
offer, for the encouragement of a general commerce with the United
States. The committee was composed of persons well skilled in commerce;
and after laboring assiduously for several months, they made their
report: the result of which was given in the letter of his Majesty’s
Comptroller General, of the 22nd of October, 1786, wherein he stated the
principles which should be established, for the future regulation of the
commerce between France and the United States. It was become tolerably
evident, at the date of this letter, that the terms offered to the
_Nantuckois_ would not produce their emigration to Dunkirk; and that it
would be safest, in every event, to offer some other alternative, which
might prevent their acceptance of the British offers. The obvious one
was, to open the ports of France to their oils, so that they might still
exercise their fishery, remaining in their native country, and find a
new market for its produce, instead of that which they had lost. The
article of whale-oil was, accordingly, distinguished in the letter of
M. de Calonne, by an immediate abatement of duty, and promise of further
abatement, after the year 1790. This letter was instantly sent
to America, and bid fair to produce there the effect intended, by
determining the fishermen to carry on their trade from their own homes,
with the advantage only of a free market in France, rather than remove
to Great Britain, where a free market and great bounty were offered
them. An _Arrêt_ was still to be prepared, to give legal sanction to the
letter of M. de Calonne. Monsieur Lambert, with a patience and assiduity
almost unexampled, went through all the investigations necessary to
assure himself, that the conclusion of the committee had been just.
Frequent conferences on this subject were held in his presence; the
deputies of the chambers of commerce were heard, and the result was, the
_Arrêt_ of December the 29th, 1787, confirming the abatements of duty,
present and future, which the letter of October, 1786, had promised,
and reserving to his Majesty, to grant still further favors to that
production, if, on further information, he should find it for the
interest of the two nations.
The English had now begun to deluge the markets of France with their
whale-oils; and they were enabled by the great premiums given by
their government, to undersell the French fisherman, aided by feebler
premiums, and the American, aided by his poverty alone. Nor is it
certain, that these speculations were not made at the risk of the
British government, to suppress the French and American fishermen in
their only market. Some remedy seemed necessary. Perhaps it would not
have been a bad one, to subject, by a general law, the merchandise of
every nation and of every nature, to pay additional duties in the ports
of France, exactly equal to the premiums and drawbacks given on the same
merchandise by their own government. This might not only counteract the
effect of premiums in the instance of whale-oils, but attack the whole
British system of bounties and drawbacks, by the aid of which they
make London the centre of commerce for the whole earth. A less general
remedy, but an effectual one, was, to prohibit the oils of all European
nations: the treaty with England requiring only, that she should be
treated as well as the most favored European nation. But the remedy
adopted was, to prohibit all oils, without exception.
To know how this remedy will operate, we must consider the quantity of
whale-oil which France consumes annually, the quantity she obtains from
her own fishery; and, if she obtains less than she consumes, we are to
consider what will follow the prohibition.
The annual consumption of France, as stated by a person who has good
opportunities of knowing it, is as follows.
lbs. pesant. quinteaux. tons.
Paris, according to the registers of
1786,.................................2,800,000 28,000 1750
Twenty-seven other cities, lighted
by M. Sangrain,........................ 800,000 8,000 500
Rouen,..................................500,000 5,000 312
Bordeaux,...............................600,000 6,000 375
Lyons,..................................300,000 3,000 187
Other cities, leather and light,......3,000,000 30,000 1875
--------- ------ ----
8,000,000 80,000 5,000
Other calculations, or say rather, conjectures, reduce the consumption
to about half this. It is treating these conjectures with great respect,
to place them on an equal footing with the estimate of the person before
alluded to, and to suppose the truth half way between them. But we will
do it, and call the present consumption of France only sixty thousand
quintals, or three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons a year. This
consumption is increasing fast, as the practice of lighting cities is
becoming more general, and the superior advantages of lighting them with
whale-oil are but now beginning to be known.