tching the uses of whale oil, its economic position and its
history, he took up the particular problem facing the people of
Nantucket, perhaps the foremost whalers in America. As long as they had
been subjects of the British Empire they had been able to sell their
oil duty-free in England. Now as aliens they must pay the same tariff
charged other foreign traders. This meant the difference between a
profitable and unprofitable enterprise. A few Nantucket seamen had even
transferred to Nova Scotia in order to become British citizens again
and thus receive exemption from whale-oil import duty. This trend
alarmed the French in particular, who could visualize thousands of the
United States' best sailors going over to their enemies the English.
The remedy was suggested: make France the most attractive market for
U.S. whale oil. At the same time, English whaling had been government
subsidized and could undercut competition.

The international chess game went briskly on, to the concern of
Jefferson and the well-wishers of the infant Union. Before the
Revolution England had fewer than 100 vessels whaling, while America
had more than 300. But by 1788 England had 314 and America 80. Such was
the result of the conflict, aided by the bounty paid by Britain to its
own whalers. Jefferson hoped that the United States producers could
develop a market in France, in part, by bartering oil for the essential
work clothes which hitherto had been bought for cash in England. But he
warned that without some kind of subsidy American whalers could neither
compete with foreign countries nor make a living commensurate with
other pursuits. The growing nation's sea-faring men would decrease to
the point where the country's sea power would be in question.

As Secretary of State in 1791, Jefferson reported to Congress on the
two principal American fisheries of the day, both oceanic. "The cod and
whale fisheries," he began, "carried on by different persons, from
different ports, in different vessels, in different seas, and seeking
different markets, agree in one circumstance, as being as unprofitable
to the adventurer as important to the public." Once prosperous, he
said, they were now in embarrassing decline.

He traced the history of the cod fisheries back to 1517, in which year
as many as 50 European ships were reported fishing off the Newfoundland
banks at one time. In 1577 there were 150 French vessels, 100 Spanish
and 50 Portuguese. The British