s 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
_Arret_ 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 t