, the mercantile houses of France, concerned in
sending her productions to be exchanged for tobacco, cut off, for three
years, from the hope of selling these tobaccos in France, were of
necessity to abandon that commerce. In consequence of this, too, a
single individual, constituted sole purchaser of so great a proportion
of the tobaccos made, had the price in his own power. A great reduction
in it took place, and that, not only on the quantity he bought, but on
the whole quantity made. The loss to the States producing the article,
did not go to cheapen it for their friends here. Their price was fixed.
What was gained on their consumption, was to enrich the person
purchasing it; the rest, the monopolists and merchants of other
countries. The effect of this operation was vitally felt by every
farmer in America, concerned in the culture of this plant. At the end
of the year, he found he had lost a fourth or a third of his revenue;
the State, the same proportion of its subjects of exchange with other
nations: the manufactures of this country, too, were either not to go
there at all, or go through the channel of a new monopoly, which, freed
from the control of competition in prices and qualities, was not likely
to extend their consumption. It became necessary to relieve the two
countries from the fatal effects of this double monopoly. I had the
honor of addressing a letter, on the 15th day of August, 1785, to his
late excellency, the Count de Vergennes, upon this subject, a copy of
which I do myself the honor herein to enclose. The effectual mode of
relief was to lay the commerce open. But the King's interest was also
to be guarded. A committee was appointed to take this matter into
consideration; and the result was, an order to the Farmers General,
that no such contract should be made again. And to furnish such aliment
as might keep that branch of commerce alive, till the expiration of the
present contract, they were required to put the merchants in general,
on a level with Mr. Morris, for the quantity of twelve or fifteen
thousand hogsheads a year. That this relief, too, might not be
intercepted from the merchants of the two suffering nations by those of
a neighboring one, and that the transportation of so bulky an article
might go to nourish their own shipping, no tobaccos were to be counted
of this purchase, but those brought in French or American vessels. Of
this order, made at Bernis, his Excellency, Count de Vergennes,