FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

Paris, October 23, 1788.

Sir,

I take the liberty of troubling your Excellency on the subject of the arrêt which has lately appeared for prohibiting the importation of whale oils and spermaceti the produce of foreign fisheries. This prohibition being expressed in general terms seems to exclude the whale oils of the United States of America, as well as of the nations of Europe. The uniform disposition, however, which his Majesty and his Ministers have shewn to promote the commerce between France and the United States, by encouraging our productions to come hither, and particularly those of our fisheries, induces me to hope that these were not within their view at the passing of this arrêt. I am led the more into this opinion when I recollect the assiduity employed for several months in the year 1785 by the committee appointed by Government to investigate the objects of commerce of the two countries, and to report the encouragements of which it was susceptible; the result of that investigation, which his Majesty's Comptroller General did me the honor to communicate in a letter of the 22d of October, 1786, stating therein the principles which should be established for the future regulation of that commerce, and particularly distinguishing the article of whale oils by an abatement of the duties on them for the present, and a promise of farther abatement after the year 1790. The thorough investigation with which Monsieur de Lambert honored this subject when the letter of 1786 was to be put into the form of an arrêt, that arrêt itself bearing date the 29th of December last, which ultimately confirmed the abatements of duty present and future, and declared that his Majesty reserved to himself to grant other favors to that production, if, on further information, he should find it for the interest of the two nations; and finally, the letter in which M. Lambert did me the honor to enclose the arrêt, and to assure me that the duties which had been levied on our whale oils contrary to the intention of the letter of 1786 should be restored. On a review, then, of all these circumstances, I cannot but presume that it has not been intended to reverse in a moment views so maturely digested and uniformly pursued, and that the general expressions of the arrêt of September 28 had within their contem

plation the nations of Europe only. This presumption is further strengthened by having observed in the treaties of commerce made since the epoch of our independence, the jura gentis amicissimæ conceded to other nations are expressly restrained to those of the most favored European nations; his Majesty wisely foreseeing that it would be expedient to regulate the commerce of a nation which brings nothing but raw materials to employ the industry of his subjects very differently from that of the European nations, who bring mostly what has already passed through all the stages of manufacture.

On these considerations I take the liberty of asking information from your Excellency as to the extent of the late arrêt; and if I have not been mistaken in supposing it did mean to abridge that of December 29, I would solicit an explanatory arrêt to prevent the misconstructions of it which will otherwise take place. It is much to be desired, too, that this explanation could be given as soon as possible, in order that it may be handed out with the arrêt of September 28. Great alarm may otherwise be spread among the merchants and adventurers in the fisheries, who, confiding in the stability of regulation which his Majesty's wisdom had so long and well matured, have embarked their fortunes in speculations in this branch of business.

The importance of the subject to one of the principal members of our Union induces me to attend with great anxiety, a reassurance from your Excellency that no change has taken place in his Majesty's views on this subject; and that his dispositions to multiply rather than diminish the combinations of interest between the two people, continue unaltered.

Commerce is slow in changing its channel, that between this country and the United States is as yet but beginning, and this beginning has received some checks. The arrêt in question would be a considerable one, without the explanation I have the honor to ask. I am persuaded that a continuation of the dispositions which have been hitherto manifested towards us will ensure effects, political and commercial, of value to both nations.

I have had too many proofs of the friendly interest your Excellency is pleased to take in whatever may strengthen the bands and connect the views of the two countries, to doubt your patronage of

the present application, or to permit any occasion of repeating assurances of those sentiments of high respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

Mr. Jefferson's Observations on the Whale Fishery.

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 competition 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 a greater quantity of oil consumed. Estimating all these articles of difference together, those employed in lighting cities find their account in giving about twentyfive 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 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 expenses. As, for example, an English ship of three hundred tons, and forty-two hands, brings home communibus annis, after a four months' voyage, twenty-five tons of oil, worth 4371. 10s. sterling, but the wages of the officers and seamen will be 400l. The outfit, then, and the merchant's 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 enconomical and enterprizing 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 HanseTowns succeeded them. The latter gave it up long ago, though they have continued to lend their name to British and Dutch oils. 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, too, the inhabitants of the barren Island of Nantucket had taken up this fishery, invited to it by the whales presenting themselves on their own shores. 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 187. 5s. 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 the 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 181. 5s. the ton of oil, which, being more than equal to the price of the common whale oil, they were 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 VOL. II.-16

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 of fishing, so that at the reëstablishment 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 connexion 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 two families.

In fact, the French Government had not been inattentive to the views of the British, nor insensible of 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