pared, could they have effected their wish: and that they have been
faithfully used in making the preliminary inquiries which are necessary,
and which ended in an assurance, that nothing could be done. These
papers having been transmitted to me through your delegation, will,
I hope, be an apology for my availing myself of the same channel for
communicating the result.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and
respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXX.--TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN, July 23, 1787

TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

Paris, July 23, 1787.

Sir,

I had the honor, a few days ago, of putting into the hands of your
Excellency, some observations on the other articles of American produce,
brought into the ports of this country. That of our tobaccos, from the
particular form of their administration here, and their importance to
the King's revenues, has been placed on a separate line, and considered
separately. I will now ask permission to bring that subject under your
consideration.

The mutual extension of their commerce was among the fairest advantages
to be derived to France and the United States, from the independence of
the latter. An exportation of eighty millions, chiefly in raw materials,
is supposed to constitute the present limits of the commerce of the
United States with the nations of Europe; limits, however, which extend
as their population increases. To draw the best proportion of this into
the ports of France, rather than of any other nation, is believed to
be the wish and interest of both. Of these eighty millions, thirty are
constituted by the single article of tobacco. Could the whole of this
be brought into the ports of France, to satisfy its own demands, and the
residue to be re-vended to other nations, it would be a powerful link
of commercial connection. But we are far from this. Even her own
consumption, supposed to be nine millions, under the administration
of the monopoly to which it is farmed, enters little, as an article of
exchange, into the commerce of the two nations. When this article was
first put into Farm, perhaps it did not injure the commercial interests
of the kingdom; because nothing but British manufactures were then
allowed to be given in return for American tobaccos. The laying the
trade open, then, to all the subjects of France, could not have relieved
her from a payment in money. Circum