has subsisted, Virginia & Maryland have lost 400, 000 by the reduction of the price of their tobacco. I am meditating what step to take to provoke a letter from Mrs. Adams, from whom my files inform me I have not received one these hundred years. In the meantime present my affectionate respects to her, and be assured of the friendship & esteem with which I have the honour to be Dear Sir your most obedient, and most humble servt. TO HECTOR ST. JOHN CREVECŒUR. J. MSS. PARIS July 11. 1786. SIR, I have been honored with a letter from M. to which is anBeing unable to Delisle Lt. Gl. au bailliage de laën, nexed a postscript from yourself. write in French so as to be sure of conveying my true meaning, or perhaps any meaning at all, I will beg of you to interpret what I have now the honor to write. It is time that the United States, generally, & most of the separate states in particular, are endeavoring to establish means to pay the interest of their public debts regularly, & to sink it's principal by degrees. But as yet their efforts have been confined to that part of their debts which is evidenced by certificates. I do not think that any state has yet taken measures for paying their paper money debt. The principle on which it shall be paid I take to be settled, tho' not directly yet virtually, by the resolution of Congress of June 3d. 1784. that is that they will pay the holder or his representatives what the money was worth at the time he received it, with an interest from that time of 6. per cent. per annum. It is not said in the letter whether the money received by Barboutin was Continental money or Virginia money; nor is it said at what time it was received. But that M. Delisle may be enabled to judge what the 5398 dollars were worth in hard money when Barboutin received them, I will state to you what was the worth of one hard dollar both in Continental & Virginia money through the whole of the year 1779 & 1780. within some part of which it was probably received. Thus you see that in Jan. 1779, 7 dollars & 72. hundreths of a dollar of Continental money were worth one dollar of silver, & at the same time 8 dollars of Virginia paper were worth one dollar of silver &c. After Mar. 18, 1780, Continental paper received in Virginia will be estimated by the table of Virginia paper. I advise all the foreign holders of paper money to lodge it in the office of their consul for the state where it was received, that he may dispose of it for their benefit the first moment that paiment shall be provided by the state or Continent. I had lately the pleasure of seeing the Countess d'Houditot well at Sanois, & have now that of assuring you of the perfect esteem & respect with which I have the honor to be Dear Sir your most obedient humble servt. TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. J. MSS. PARIS July 17, 1786. DEAR SIR, I have now the honour of inclosing to you an estimate of the Exports & Imports of the United States. Calculations of this kind cannot pretend to accuracy, where inattention and fraud combine to suppress their objects. Approximation is all that they can aim at. Neither care nor candour have been wanting on my part to bring them as near the truth as my skill and materials would enable me to do. I have availed myself of the best documents from the custom houses which have been given to the public: and have been able to rectify these in many instances by information collected by myself on the spot in many of the states. Still remember however that I call them but approximations and that they must present some errors as considerable as they were unavoidable. Our commerce divides itself into European & West Indian. I have conformed my statement to this division. On running over the Catalogue of American im ports, France will naturally mark out those articles with which she could supply us to advantage : & she may safely calculate that after a little time shall have enabled us to get rid of our present incumbrances, and of some remains of attachment to the particular forms of manufacture to which we have been habituated we shall take those articles which she can furnish on as good terms as other nations, to whatever extent she will enable us to pay for them. It is her interest therefore, as well as ours, to multiply the means of paiment. These must be found in the catalogue of our Exports, & among these will be seen neither gold nor silver. We have no mines of either of these metals. Produce therefore is all we can offer. Some articles of our produce will be found very convenient to this country for her own consumption. Others will be convenient, as being more commerciable in her hands than those she will give in exchange for them. If there be any which she can neither consume, nor dispose of by exchange, she will not buy them of us, and of course we shall not bring them to her. If American produce can be brought into the ports of France, the articles of exchange for it will be taken in those ports & the only means of drawing it hither is to let the merchant see that he can dispose of it on better terms here than anywhere else. If the market price of this country does not in itself offer this superiority, it may be worthy of consideration whether it should be obtained by such abatements of duties, and even by such other encouragements as the importance of the article may justify. Should some loss attend this in the begin ning, it can be discontinued when the trade shall be well established in this channel. We can only shew what With respect to the West India commerce, I must apprise you that this estimate does not present it's present face. No materials have enabled us to say how it stands since the war. it was before that period. changed our situation there much for the worse. This is most sensibly felt in the Exports of fish, and flour. The surplus of the former, which these regulations throw back on us, is forced to Europe, where, by increasing the quantity, it lessens the price: the surplus of the latter is sunk: and to what other objects this portion of industry is turned, or turning, I am not able to discover. The Imports too of Sugar & Coffee are thrown under great difficulties. These increase the price and being articles of food for the poorer class (as you may be sensible on observing the quantities consumed) a small increase of price places them above the reach of this class, which being very numerous, must occasion a great diminution of con. sumption. It remains to see whether the American will endeavour to baffle these new restrictions in order to indulge his habits; or will adapt his habits to other objects which may furnish emploiment to the surplus of industry formerly occupied in raising that bread which no longer finds a vent in the West Indian market. If, instead of either of these measures, he should resolve to come to Europe for coffee & sugar, he must lessen equivalently his consumption of some other European articles in order to VOL. IV.-17 |