Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CIX.—­TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN, October 23, 1787

TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

Paris, October 23, 1787.

Sir,

I take the liberty of troubling your Excellency on the subject of the Arret, 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 shown 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 Arret.  I am led the more into this opinion, when I recollect the assiduity exercised 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 22nd 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 re-investigation with which Monsieur de Lambert honored this subject when the letter of 1786 was to be put into the form of an Arret; that Arret 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 Monsieur de Lambert did me the honor to enclose the Arret, 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 Arret of September the 28th had within their contemplation the nations of Europe only.  This presumption is further strengthened by having observed, that in the treaties of commerce, made since the epoch of our independence, the jura gentis amicissimcae conceded to other nations, are expressly restrained to those of the ‘most favored European nation’:  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.