Томас Джефферсон
Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
The refinery for whale-oil, lately established at Rouen, seems to be an object worthy of national attention. In order to judge of its importance, the different qualities of whale-oil must be noted. Three qualities are known in the American and English markets. 1st. That of the spermaceti whale. 2nd. Of the Greenland whale. 3rd. Of the Brazil whale. 1. The spermaceti whale found by the Nantuckois, in the neighborhood of the Western Islands, to which they had gone in pursuit of other whales, retired thence to the coast of Guinea, afterwards to that of Brazil, and begins now to be best found in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, and even of Cape Horn. He is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fisherman. The inhabitants of Brazil make little expeditions from their coast, and take some of these fish. But the Americans are the only distant people, who have been in the habit of seeking and attacking him, in numbers. The British, however, led by the Nantuckois, whom they have decoyed into their service, have begun this fishery. In 1785, they had eighteen ships in it; in 1787, thirty-eight; in 1788, fifty-four, or, as some say, sixty-four. I have calculated on the middle number, fifty-nine. Still they take but a very small proportion of their own demand; we furnish the rest. Theirs is the only market to which we carry that oil, because it is the only one where its properties are known. It is luminous, resists coagulation by cold, to the forty-first degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and fourth of Reaumur’s, and yields no smell at all: it is used, therefore, within doors, to lighten shops, and even in the richest houses, for antichambers, stairs, galleries, &c. It sells at the London market for treble the price of common whale-oil. This enables the adventurer to pay the duty of eighteen pounds five shillings sterling the ton, and still to have a living profit. Besides the mass of oil produced from the whole body of the whale, his head yields three or four barrels of what is called head-matter, from which is made the solid spermaceti, used for medicine and candles. This sells by the pound at double the price of the oil. The disadvantage of this fishery is, that the sailors are from nine to twelve months absent on the voyage; of course, they are not at hand on any sudden emergency, and are even liable to be taken, before they know that war is begun. It must be added, on the subject of this whale, that he is rare and shy, soon abandoning the grounds where he is hunted. This fishery, less losing than the other, and often profitable, will occasion it to be so thronged, soon, as to bring it on a level with the other. It will then require the same expensive support, or to be abandoned.
2. The Greenland whale-oil is next in quality. It resists coagulation by cold, to thirty-six degrees of Fahrenheit, and two of Reaumur, but it has a smell insupportable within doors, and is not luminous. It sells, therefore, in London, at about sixteen pounds the ton. This whale is clumsy and timid; he dives when struck, and comes up to breathe by the first cake of ice, where the fishermen need little address or courage to find and take him. This is the fishery mostly frequented by European nations; it is this fish which yields the fin in quantity, and the voyages last about three or four months.
The third quality is that of the small Brazil whale. He was originally found on the coast of Nantucket, and first led that people to this pursuit: he retired, first to the Banks of Newfoundland, then to the Western Islands, and is now found within soundings on the coast of Brazil, during the months of December, January, February, and March. His oil chills at fifty-two degrees of Fahrenheit, and eight of Reaumur, is black and offensive; worth, therefore, but thirteen pounds the ton, in London. In warm summer nights, however, it burns better than the Greenland oil.
To the qualities of the oils thus described, it is to be added, that an individual has discovered methods, 1. of converting a great part of the oils of the spermaceti-whale, into the solid substance called spermaceti, heretofore produced from his head alone; 2. of refining the Greenland whale-oil, so as to take from it all smell, and render it limpid and luminous as that of the spermaceti-whale; 3. of curdling the oil of the Brazil whale into tallow, resembling that of beef, and answering all its purposes. This person is engaged by the company, which has established the refinery at Rouen: their works will cost them half a million of livres; will be able to refine all the oil which can be used in the kingdom, and even to supply foreign markets. The effects of the refinery, then, would be, 1. to supplant the solid spermaceti of all other nations, by theirs, of equal quality and lower price; 2. to substitute, instead of spermaceti-oil, their black whale-oil refined, of equal quality and lower price; 3. to render the worthless oil of the Brazil, equal in value to tallow; and 4. by accommodating these oils to uses, to which they could never otherwise have been applied, they will extend the demand beyond its present narrow limits, to any supply which can be furnished, and thus give the most effectual encouragement and extension to the whale-fishery. But these works were calculated on the Arrêt of December the 29th, which admitted here, freely and fully, the produce of the American fishery. If confined to that of the French fishery alone, the enterprise may fail, for want of matter to work on.
After this review of the whale-fishery as a political institution, a few considerations shall be added on its produce, as a basis of commercial exchange between France and the United States. The discussions it has undergone, on former occasions, in this point of view, leaves little new to be now urged.
The United States, not possessing mines of the precious metals, can purchase necessaries from other nations, so far only as their produce is received in exchange. Without enumerating our smaller articles, we have three of principal importance, proper for the French market; to wit, tobacco, whale-oil, and rice. The first and most important, is tobacco. This might furnish an exchange for eight millions of the productions of this country; but it is under a monopoly, and that not of a mercantile, but of a financiering company, whose interest is, to pay in money and not in merchandise, and who are so much governed by the spirit of simplifying their purchases and proceedings, that they find means to elude every endeavor on the part of government, to make them diffuse their purchases among the merchants in general. Little profit is derived from this, then, as an article of exchange for the produce and manufactures of France. Whale-oil might be next in importance; but that is now prohibited. American rice is not yet of great, but it is of growing consumption in France, and being the only article of the three which is free, it may become a principal basis of exchange. Time and trial may add a fourth, that is, timber. But some essays, rendered unsuccessful by unfortunate circumstances, place that, at present, under a discredit, which it will be found hereafter not to have merited. The English know its value, and were supplied with it, before the war. A spirit of hostility, since that event, led them to seek Russian rather than American supplies; a new spirit of hostility has driven them back from Russia, and they are now making contracts for American timber. But of the three articles before mentioned, proved by experience to be suitable for the French market, one is prohibited, one under monopoly, and one alone free, and that the smallest and of very limited consumption. The way to encourage purchasers, is, to multiply their means of payment. Whale-oil might be an important one. In one scale, are the interests of the millions who are lighted, shod, or clothed with the help of it, and the thousands of laborers and manufacturers, who would be employed in producing the articles which might be given in exchange for it, if received from America: in the other scale, are the interests of the adventurers in the whale-fishery each of whom, indeed, politically considered, may be of more importance to the State, than a simple laborer or manufacturer; but to make the estimate with the accuracy it merits, we should multiply the numbers in each scale into their individual importance, and see which preponderates.
Both governments have seen with concern, that their commercial intercourse does not grow as rapidly as they would wish. The system of the United States is, to use neither prohibitions nor premiums. Commerce, there, regulates itself freely, and asks nothing better. Where a government finds itself under the necessity of undertaking that regulation, it would seem, that it should conduct it as an intelligent merchant would; that is to say, invite customers to purchase, by facilitating their means of payment, and by adapting goods to their taste. If this idea be just, government here has two operations to attend to, with respect to the commerce of the United States; 1. to do away, or to moderate, as much as possible, the prohibitions and monopolies of their materials for payment; 2. to encourage the institution of the principal manufactures, which the necessities, or the habits of their new customers call for. Under this latter head, a hint shall be suggested, which must find its apology in the motive from which it flows; that is, a desire of promoting mutual interests and close friendship. Six hundred thousand of the laboring poor of America, comprehending slaves under that denomination, are clothed in three of the simplest manufactures possible; to wit, oznaburgs, plains, and duffel blankets. The first is a linen; the two last, woollens. It happens, too, that they are used exactly by those who cultivate the tobacco and rice, and in a good degree by those employed in the whale-fishery. To these manufactures they are so habituated, that no substitute will be received. If the vessels which bring tobacco, rice, and whale-oil, do not find them in the ports of delivery, they must be sought where they can be found; that is, in England, at present. If they were made in France, they would be gladly taken in exchange there. The quantities annually used by this description of people, and their value, are as follows:
Oznaburgs 2,700,000 aunes, at sixteen sous the aune, worth
2,160,000
Plains 1,350,000 aunes, at two livres the aune,
2,700,000
Duffel Blankets 300,000 aunes, at seven and 4/5ths livres each
2,160,000
––
7,020,000
It would be difficult to say, how much should be added, for the consumption of inhabitants of other descriptions; a great deal surely. But the present view shall be confined to the one description named. Seven millions of livres, are nine millions of days’ work, of those who raise, spin, and weave the wool and flax; and, at three hundred working days to the year, would maintain thirty thousand people. To introduce these simple manufactures, suppose government to give five per cent, on the value of what should be exported of them, for ten years to come: if none should be exported, nothing would be to be paid: but on the other hand, if the manufactures, with this encouragement, should rise to the full demand, it will be a sacrifice of three hundred and fifty-one thousand livres a year, for ten years only, to produce a perpetual subsistence for more than thirty thousand people (for the demand will grow with our population); while she must expend perpetually one million two hundred and eighty-five thousand livres a year, to maintain the three thousand five hundred and seventy seamen, who would supply her with whale-oil. That is to say, for each seaman, as much as for thirty laborers and manufacturers.
But to return to our subject, and to conclude.
Whether, then, we consider the Arrêt of September the 28th, in a political or a commercial light, it would seem, that the United States should be excepted from its operation. Still more so, when they invoke against it the amity subsisting between the two nations, the desire of binding them together by every possible interest and connection, the several acts in favor of this exception, the dignity of legislation, which admits not of changes backwards and forwards, the interests of commerce, which requires steady regulations, the assurances of the friendly motives which have led the King to pass these acts, and the hope, that no cause will arise, to change either his motives or his measures towards us.
LETTER CLXXI.—TO JOHN JAY, November 29, 1788
TO JOHN JAY.
Paris, November 29, 1788.
Sir,
In the hurry of making up my letter of the 19th instant, I omitted the enclosed printed paper, on the subject of whale-oil. That omission is now supplied by another conveyance, by the way of London. The explanatory Arrêt is not yet come out. I still take for granted, it will pass, though there be an opposition to it in the Council. In the mean time, orders are given to receive our oils which may arrive. The apprehension of a want of corn has induced them to turn their eyes to foreign supplies; and to show their preference of receiving them from us, they have passed the enclosed Arrêt, giving a premium on wheat and flour from the United States, for a limited time. This, you will doubtless think proper to have translated and published. The Notables are still in session: the votes of the separate bureaux have not yet been reduced to a joint act, in an assembly of the whole. I see no reason to suppose they will change the separate votes relative to the representation of the Tiers Etat in the States General. In the mean time, the stream of public indignation, heretofore directed against the court, sets strongly against the Notables. It is not yet decided when the States will meet: but certainly they cannot, till February or March. The Turks have retired across the Danube. This movement indicates their going into winter-quarters, and the severity of the weather must hasten it. The thermometer was yesterday at eight degrees of Fahrenheit, that is, twenty-four degrees below freezing; a degree of cold equal to that of the year 1740, which they count here among their coldest winters. This having continued many days, and being still likely to continue, and the wind from northeast, render it probable, that all enterprise must be suspended between the three great belligerent powers. Poland is likely to be thrown into great convulsions. The Empress of Russia has peremptorily demanded such aids from Poland, as might engage it in the war. The King of Prussia, on the other hand, threatens to march an army on their borders. The vote of the Polish confederacy for one hundred thousand men, was a coalition of the two parties, in that single act only. The party opposed to the King, have obtained a majority, and have voted that this army shall be independent of him. They are supported by Prussia, while the King depends on Russia. Authentic information from England leaves not a doubt, that the King is lunatic; and that, instead of the effect, is the cause of the illness, under which he has been so near dying. I mention this, because the English newspapers, speaking by guess on that as they do on all other subjects, might mislead you as to his true situation; or rather, might mislead others, who know less than you do, that a thing is not rendered the more probable, by being mentioned in those papers.
I enclose those of Leyden to the present date, with the gazettes of France, and have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson
LETTER, CLXXII.—TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, December 4, 1788
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.
Paris, December 4, 1788.
Sir,
Your favor of August the 31st came to hand yesterday; and a confidential conveyance offering, by the way of London, I avail myself of it, to acknowledge the receipt.
I have seen, with infinite pleasure, our new constitution accepted by eleven States, not rejected by the twelfth; and that the thirteenth happens to be a state of the least importance. It is true, that the minorities in most of the accepting States have been very respectable; so much so, as to render it prudent, were it not otherwise reasonable, to make some sacrifice to them. I am in hopes, that the annexation of a bill of rights to the constitution will alone draw over so great a proportion of the minorities, as to leave little danger in the opposition of the residue; and that this annexation may be made by Congress and the Assemblies, without calling a convention, which might endanger the most valuable parts of the system. Calculation has convinced me, that circumstances may arise, and probably will arise, wherein all the resources of taxation will be necessary for the safety of the State. For though I am decidedly of opinion, we should take no part in European quarrels, but cultivate peace and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the source of war in the tyranny of those nations, who deprive us of the natural right of trading with our neighbors? The produce of the United States will soon exceed the European demand: what is to be done with the surplus, when there shall be one? It will be employed, without question, to open, by force, a market for itself, with those placed on the same continent with us, and who wish nothing better. Other causes, too, are obvious, which may involve us in war; and war requires every resource of taxation and credit. The power of making war often prevents it, and in our case, would give efficacy to our desire of peace. If the new government wears the front which I hope it will, I see no impossibility in the availing ourselves of the wars of others, to open the other parts of America to our commerce, as the price of our neutrality.
The campaign between the Turks and two Empires has been clearly in favor of the former. The Emperor is secretly trying to bring about a peace. The alliance between England, Prussia, and Holland, (and some suspect Sweden also) renders their mediation decisive, wherever it is proposed. They seemed to interpose it so magisterially between Denmark and Sweden, that the former submitted to its dictates, and there was all reason to believe, that the war in the northwestern parts of Europe would be, quieted. All of a sudden, a new flame bursts out in Poland. The King and his party are devoted to Russia. The opposition rely on the protection of Prussia. They have lately become the majority in the confederated diet, and have passed a vote for subjecting their army to a commission independent of the King, and propose a perpetual diet, in which case he will be a perpetual cipher. Russia declares against such a change in their constitution, and Prussia has put an army into readiness, for marching, at a moment’s warning, on the frontier of Poland. These events are too recent, to see, as yet, what turn they will take, or what effect they will have on the peace of Europe. So is that also, of the lunacy of the King of England, which is a decided fact, notwithstanding all the stuff the English papers publish, about his fevers, his deliriums, &c. The truth is, that the lunacy declared itself almost at once, and with as few concomitant complaints, as usually attend the first developement of that disorder. I suppose a regency will be established, and if it consists of a plurality of members, it will, probably, be peaceable. In this event, it will much favor the present wishes of this country, which are so decidedly for peace, that they refused to enter into the mediation between Sweden and Russia, lest it should commit them. As soon as the convocation of the States General was announced, a tranquillity took place through the whole kingdom: happily, no open rupture had taken place, in any part of it. The parliament were re-instated in their functions, at the same time. This was all they desired; and they had called for the States General, only through fear that the crown could not otherwise be forced to re-instate them. Their end obtained, they began to foresee danger to themselves, in the States General. They began to lay the foundation for caviling at the legality of that body, if its measures should be hostile to them. The court, to clear itself of the dispute, convened the Notables, who had acted with general approbation on the former occasion, and referred to them the forms of calling and organizing the States General. These Notables consist principally of Nobility and Clergy; the few of the Tiers Etat among them, being either parliament men, or other privileged persons. The court wished, that, in the future States General, the members of the Tiers Etat should equal those of both the other orders, and that they should form but one House, all together, and vote by persons, not by orders. But the Notables, in the true spirit of Priests and Nobles, combining together against the people, have voted, by five bureaux out of six, that the people, or Tiers Etat, shall have no greater number of deputies, than each of the other orders separately, and that they shall vote by orders: so that two orders concurring in a vote, the third will be overruled; for it is not here as in England, where each of the three branches has a negative on the other two. If this project of theirs succeeds, a combination between the two Houses of Clergy and Nobles will render the representation of the Tiers Etat merely nugatory. The bureaux are to assemble together, to consolidate their separate votes: but I see no reasonable hope of their changing this. Perhaps the King, knowing that he may count on the support of the nation, and attach it more closely to him, may take on himself to disregard the opinion of the Notables in this instance, and may call an equal representation of the people, in which precedents will support him. In every event, I think the present disquiet will end well. The nation has been awaked by our Revolution; they feel their strength, they are enlightened, their lights are spreading, and they will not retrograde. The first States General may establish three important points, without opposition from the court; 1. their own periodical convocation; 2. their exclusive right of taxation (which has been confessed by the King); 3. the right of registering laws, and of previously proposing amendments to them, as the parliaments have, by usurpation, been in the habit of doing. The court will consent to this, from its hatred to the parliaments, and from the desire of having to do with one, rather than many legislatures. If the States are prudent, they will not aim at more than this at first, lest they should shock the dispositions of the court, and even alarm the public mind, which must be left to open itself, by degrees, to successive improvements. These will follow, from the nature of things: how far they can proceed, in the end, towards a thorough reformation of abuse, cannot be foreseen. In my opinion, a kind of influence, which none of their plans of reform take into account, will elude them all; I mean the influence of women in the government. The manners of the nation allow them to visit, alone, all persons in office, to solicit the affairs of the husband, family, or friends, and their solicitations bid defiance to laws and regulations. This obstacle may seem less to those, who, like our countrymen, are in the precious habit of considering right, as a barrier against all solicitation. Nor can such an one, without the evidence of his own eyes, believe in the desperate state to which things are reduced in this country, from the omnipotence of an influence, which, fortunately for the happiness of the sex itself, does not endeavor to extend itself, in our country, beyond the domestic line.
Your communications to the Count de Moustier, whatever they may have been, cannot have done injury to my endeavors here, to open the West Indies to us. On this head, the ministers are invincibly mute, though I have often tried to draw them into the subject. I have therefore found it necessary to let it lie, till war, or other circumstances, may force it on. Whenever they are in war with England, they must open the islands to us, and perhaps, during that war, they may see some price which might make them agree to keep them always open. In the mean time, I have laid my shoulder to the opening the markets of this country to our produce, and rendering its transportation a nursery for our seamen. A maritime force is the only one, by which we can act on Europe. Our navigation law (if it be wise to have any) should be the reverse of that of England. Instead of confining importations to home-bottoms, or those of the producing nation, I think we should confine exportations to home-bottoms, or to those of nations having treaties with us. Our exportations are heavy, and would nourish a great force of our own, or be a tempting price to the nation to whom we should offer a participation of it, in exchange for free access to all their possessions. This is an object to which our government alone is adequate, in the gross; but I have ventured to pursue it here, so far as the consumption of our productions by this country extends. Thus, in our arrangements relative to tobacco, none can be received here, but in French or American bottoms. This is employment for near two thousand seamen, and puts nearly that number of British out of employ. By the Arrêt of December, 1787, it was provided, that our whale-oils should not be received here, but in French or American bottoms; and by later regulations, all oils, but those of France and America, are excluded. This will put one hundred English whale vessels immediately out of employ, and one hundred and fifty ere long; and call so many of French and American into service. We have had six thousand seamen formerly in this business, the whole of whom we have been likely to lose. The consumption of rice is growing fast in this country, and that of Carolina gaining ground on every other kind. I am of opinion, the whole of the Carolina rice can be consumed here. Its transportation employs two thousand five hundred sailors, almost all of them English at present; the rice being deposited at Cowes, and brought from thence here. It would be dangerous to confine this transportation to French and American bottoms, the ensuing year, because they will be much engrossed by the transportation of wheat and flour hither, and the crop of rice might lie on hand for want of vessels; but I see no objections to the extension of our principle to this article also, beginning with the year 1790. However, before there is a necessity of deciding on this, I hope to be able to consult our new government in person, as I have asked of Congress a leave of absence for six months, that is to say, from April to November next. It is necessary for me to pay a short visit to my native country, first, to reconduct my family thither, and place them in the hands of their friends, and secondly, to place my private affairs under certain arrangements. When I left my own house, I expected to be absent but five months, and I have been led by events to an absence of five years. I shall hope, therefore, for the pleasure of personal conferences with your Excellency, on the subject of this letter, and others interesting to our country; of getting my own ideas set to rights by a communication of yours, and of taking again the tone of sentiment of my own country, which we lose in some degree, after a certain absence. You know, doubtless, of the death of the Marquis de Chastellux. The Marquis de la Fayette is out of favor with the court, but high in favor with the nation. I once feared for his personal liberty, but I hope he is on safe ground at present.
On the subject of the whale-fishery, I enclose you some observations I drew up for the ministry here, in order to obtain a correction of their Arrêt of September last, whereby they had involved our oils with the English, in a general exclusion from their ports. They will accordingly correct this, so that our oils will participate with theirs, in the monopoly of their markets. There are several things incidentally introduced, which do not seem pertinent to the general question: they were rendered necessary by particular circumstances, the explanation of which would add to a letter already too long. I will trespass no further, than to assure you of the sentiments of sincere attachment and respect, with which I have the honor to be your Excellency’s most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
P. S. The observations enclosed, though printed, have been put into confidential hands only. T. J.
