went before the age in which he lived, yet there can
be no doubt that to him France was indebted for the consolidation,
extension, and firm footing of her commerce. Immediately before the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, her commerce was at its greatest
heighth, as the following estimates of that she carried on with England and
Holland will prove. To the former country the exportation of manufactured
silks of all sorts is said to have been to the value of 600,000_l_.;--of
linen, sail-cloth, and canvass, about 700,000_l_.;--in beaver hats,
watches, clocks, and glass, about 220,000_l_.;--in paper, about
90,000_l_.;--in iron ware, the manufacture of Auvergne, chiefly, about
40,000_l_.;--in shalloons, tammies, &c. from Picardy and Champagne, about
150,000_l_.;--in wines, about 200,000_l_.; and brandies, about 80,000_l_.
The exports to Holland, shortly before the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, in silks, velvets, linen, and paper, are estimated at 600,000_l_.;
--in hats, about 200,000_l_.;--in glass, clocks, watches, and household
furniture, about 160,000_l_.;--in small articles, such as fringes, gloves,
&c., about 200,000_l_.;--in linen, canvass, and sail cloth, about
160,000_l_.; and in saffron, dye-wood, woollen yarn, &c., about 300,000_l_.

In the year 1700 a council of commerce was constituted in France,
consisting of the principal ministers of state and finance, and of twelve
of the principal merchants of the kingdom, chosen annually from Paris,
Rouen, Bourdeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Rochelle, Nantes, St. Maloe, Lisle,
Bayonne, and Dunkirk.

From the first report of this board, we gain some information of the state
of French commerce at this time; according to it, the French employed in
their West India and Guinea trade only 100 vessels, whereas the English
employed 500. The principal articles they drew from these islands were
sugar, indigo, cotton, cocoa, ginger, &c. The exclusive trades formed in
1661, when France was little versed in commerce and navigation, are
deprecated: the chief of them were, that granted to Marseilles for the sole
trade to the Levant;--the East India Company;--the prohibiting foreign raw
silk to be carried to Paris, Nismes, Tours, &c., till it had passed through
Lyons;--the Canada and Guinea Companies, besides various farms or
monopolies of certain merchandize in trade: the principal of these last was
lead from England, with which, made into shot, the persons who had the
monopoly supplied