The difference of value between Paris and the colony was the cause of great embarrassment.  Projects for establishing an invariable money were often discussed, but never attempted.  All foreign specie ought to have become merchandise in the colony, and to have passed according to its title and weight.  Exchange of France with San Domingo was at 66-2/3:  that is, 66 livres, 13 sols, 4 deniers tournois were worth a hundred livres in the Antilles.  Deduct one-third from any sum to find the sum in livres tournois.

Pounds.          Livres. 
Sugar,     {To France, 166,353,834 for 61,849,381
{Abroad,    104,099,866  "  38,703,720

Coffee,    {To France,  61,991,699  "  29,421,039
{Abroad,     50,058,246  "  23,757,464

Indigo,    {To France,   2,067,498  "  17,573,733
{Abroad,      1,130,638  "   9,610,423

Cacao,     {To France,   1,562,027  "   1,093,419
{Abroad,        794,275  "     555,992

Roucou,[D] {To France,     352,216  "     220,369
{Abroad,        153,178  "      95,838

Cotton,    {To France,   3,407,157  "  11,017,892
{Abroad,        102,011  "     255,027

[Footnote D:  This was the scarlet dye of the Caribs, which they procured from the red pulpy covering of the seeds of the Bixa orellana, by simply rubbing their bodies with them.  The seeds, when macerated and fermented, yielded a paste, which was imported in rolls under the name of Orlean, and was used in dyeing.  It was also put into chocolate to deepen its color and lend an astringency which was thought to be wholesome.  Tonic pills were made of it.  The fibres of the bark are stronger than those of hemp.  The name Roucou is from the Carib Urucu.  In commerce the dye is also known as Annotto.]

This table, with its alluring figures, that seem to glean gratefully after the steps of labor, is the negro’s manifesto of the French slave-trade.  The surprising totals betray the sudden development of that iniquity under the stimulus of national ambition.  The slave expresses his misery in the ciphers of luxury.  The single article of sugar, which lent a new nourishment to the daily food of every country, sweetened the child’s pap, the invalid’s posset, and the drinks of rich and poor, yielded its property to medicine, made the nauseous palatable, grew white and frosted in curious confections, and by simply coming into use stimulated the trades and inventions of a world, was the slave’s insinuation of the bitterness of his condition.  Out of the eaten came forth meat, and out of the bitter sweetness.

In 1701, Western San Domingo had 19,000 negroes:  in 1777, a moderate estimate gives 300,000, not including 50,000 children under fourteen years of age,—­and in the other French colonial possessions 500,000.  In the year 1785, sixty-five slavers brought to San Domingo 21,662 negroes, who were sold for 43,236,216 livres; and 32,990 were landed in the smaller French islands.  In 1786, the value of the negroes imported was estimated at 65,891,395 livres, and the average price of a negro at that time was 1997 livres.