The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 2 (of 9)

P. S. The last crop of corn in France has been so short, that they apprehend want. Mr. Neckar desires me to make known this scarcity to our merchants, in hopes they would send supplies. I promised him I would. If it could be done without naming him, it would be agreeable to him, and probably advantageous to the adventurers.

[The annexed are the observations on the subject of admitting our whale oil in the markets of France, referred to in the preceding letter.]

Whale oil enters, as a raw material, into several branches of manufacture, as of wool, leather, soap: it is used also, in painting, architecture and navigation. But its great consumption is in lighting houses and cities. For this last purpose, however, it has a powerful competitor in the vegetable oils. These do well in warm, still weather, but they fix with cold, they extinguish easily with the wind, their crop is precarious, depending on the seasons, and to yield the same light, a larger wick must be used, and greater quantity of oil consumed. Estimating all these articles of difference together, those employed in lighting cities find their account in giving about twenty-five per cent. more for whale, than for vegetable oils. But higher than this, the whale oil, in its present form, cannot rise; because it then becomes more advantageous to the city lighters to use others. This competition, then, limits its price, higher than which no encouragement can raise it; and it becomes, as it were, a law of its nature. But, at this low price, the whale fishery is the poorest business into which a merchant or sailor can enter. If the sailor, instead of wages, has a part of what is taken, he finds that this, one year with another, yields him less than he could have got as wages in any other business. It is attended, too, with great risk, singular hardships, and long absence from his family. If the voyage is made solely at the expense of the merchant, he finds that, one year with another, it does not reimburse him his expense. As for example, an English ship of three hundred tons and forty-two hands, brings home, communibus annis, after four months' voyage, twenty-five tons of oil, worth four hundred and thirty-seven pounds ten shillings sterling. But the wages of the officers and seamen, will be four hundred pounds; the outfit, then, and the merchant's profit, must be paid by the government; and it is accordingly on this idea that the British bounty is calculated. From the poverty of this business, then, it has happened that the nations who have taken it up, have successively abandoned it. The Basques began it; but though the most economical and enterprising of the inhabitants of France, they could not continue it; and it is said they never employed more than thirty ships a year. The Dutch and Hanse towns succeeded them. The latter gave it up long ago. The English carried it on in competition with the Dutch, during the last and beginning of the present century; but it was too little profitable for them, in comparison with other branches of commerce open to them.

In the meantime, the inhabitants of the barren island of Nantucket had taken up this fishery, invited to it, by the whales presenting themselves on their own shore. To them, therefore, the English relinquished it, continuing to them, as British subjects, the importation of their oils into England, duty free, while foreigners were subject to a duty of eighteen pounds five shillings sterling, a ton. The Dutch were enabled to continue it long, because, 1st. They are so near the northern fishing grounds, that a vessel begins her fishing very soon after she is out of port. 2d. They navigate with more economy than the other nations of Europe. 3d. Their seamen are content with lower wages: and 4th, their merchants, with a lower profit on their capital. Under all these favorable circumstances, however, this branch of business, after long languishing, is, at length, nearly extinct with them. It is said, they did not send above half a dozen ships in pursuit of the whale, this present year. The Nantuckois, then, were the only people who exercised this fishery to any extent, at the commencement of the late war. Their country, from its barrenness yielding no subsistence, they were obliged to seek it in the sea which surrounded them. Their economy was more rigorous than that of the Dutch. Their seamen, instead of wages, had a share in what was taken: this induced them to fish with fewer hands, so that each had a greater dividend in the profit; it made them more vigilant in seeking game, bolder in pursuing it, and parsimonious in all their expenses. London was their only market. When, therefore, by the late Revolution, they became aliens in Great Britain, they became subject to the alien duty of eighteen pounds five shillings, the ton of oil, which being more than equal to the price of the common whale oil, they are obliged to abandon that fishery. So that this people, who, before the war, had employed upwards of three hundred vessels a year, in the whale fishery, (while Great Britain had herself, never employed one hundred,) have now almost ceased to exercise it. But they still had the seamen, the most important material for this fishery; and they still retained the spirit for fishing: so that, at the re-establishment of peace, they were capable, in a very short time, of reviving their fishery, in all its splendor. The British government saw that the moment was critical. They knew that their own share in that fishery, was as nothing; that the great mass of fishermen was left with a nation now separated from them; that these fishermen, however, had lost their ancient market; had no other resource within their country, to which they could turn; and they hoped, therefore, they might, in the present moment of distress, be decoyed over to their establishments, and be added to the mass of their seamen. To effect this, they offered extravagant advantages to all persons who should exercise the whale fishery from British establishments. But not counting with much confidence, on a long connection with their remaining possessions on the continent of America, foreseeing that the Nantuckois would settle in them, preferably, if put on an equal footing with those of Great Britain, and that thus they might have to purchase them the second time, they confined their high offers to settlers in Great Britain. The Nantuckois, left without resource by the loss of their market, began to think of removing to the British dominions; some to Nova Scotia, preferring smaller advantages, in the neighborhood of their ancient country and friends; others to Great Britain, postponing country and friends to high premiums. A vessel was already arrived from Halifax to Nantucket, to take off some of those who proposed to remove; two families had gone on board, and others were going, when a letter was received there, which had been written by Monsieur le Marquis de La Fayette, to a gentleman in Boston, and transmitted by him to Nantucket. The purport of the letter was, to dissuade their accepting the British proposals, and to assure them, that their friends in France would endeavor to do something for them. This instantly suspended their design: not another went on board, and the vessel returned to Halifax, with only the two families.

In fact, the French government had not been inattentive to the views of the British, nor insensible to the crisis. They saw the danger of permitting five or six thousand of the best seamen existing, to be transferred by a single stroke to the marine strength of their enemy, and to carry over with them an art, which they possessed almost exclusively. The counterplan which they set on foot, was, to tempt the Nantuckois, by high offers, to come and settle in France. This was in the year 1785. The British, however, had in their favor a sameness of language, religion, laws, habits, and kindred. Nine families only, of thirty-three persons in the whole, came to Dunkirk; so that this project was not likely to prevent their emigration to the English establishments, if nothing else had happened.

France had effectually aided in detaching the United States of America from the force of Great Britain; but, as yet, they seemed to have indulged only a silent wish, to detach them from her commerce. They had done nothing to induce that event. In the same year, 1785, while M. de Calonnes was in treaty with the Nantuckois, an estimate of the commerce of the United States was submitted to the Count de Vergennes, and it was shown, that of three millions of pounds sterling, to which their exports amounted, one third might be brought to France, and exchanged against her productions and manufactures, advantageously for both nations; provided the obstacles of prohibition, monopoly and duty, were either done away or moderated, as far as circumstances would admit. A committee, which had been appointed to investigate a particular one of these objects, was thereupon instructed to extend its researches to the whole, and see what advantages and facilities the government could offer, for the encouragement of a general commerce with the United States. The committee was composed of persons well skilled in commerce; and after laboring assiduously for several months, they made their report: the result of which was given in the letter of his Majesty's Comptroller General, of the 22d of October, 1786, wherein he stated the principles which should be established, for the future regulation of the commerce between France and the United States. It was become tolerably evident at the date of this letter, that the terms offered to the Nantuckois, would not produce their emigration to Dunkirk; and that it would be safest, in every event, to offer some other alternative, which might prevent their acceptance of the British offers. The obvious one was, to open the ports of France to their oils, so that they might still exercise their fishery, remaining in their native country, and find a new market for its produce, instead of that which they had lost. The article of whale oil was, accordingly, distinguished in the letter of M. de Calonnes, by an immediate abatement of duty, and promise of further abatement, after the year 1790. This letter was instantly sent to America, and bid fair to produce there the effect intended, by determining the fishermen to carry on their trade from their own homes, with the advantage only of a free market in France, rather than remove to Great Britain, where a free market and great bounty were offered them. An Arret was still to be prepared, to give legal sanction to the letter of M. de Calonnes. Monsieur Lambert, with a patience and assiduity almost unexampled, went through all the investigations necessary to assure himself, that the conclusion of the committee had been just. Frequent conferences on this subject were held in his presence; the deputies of the chambers of commerce were heard, and the result was, the Arret of December the 29th, 1787, confirming the abatements of duty, present and future, which the letter of October, 1786, had promised, and reserving to his Majesty, to grant still further favors to that production, if, on further information, he should find it for the interest of the two nations.

The English had now begun to deluge the markets of France, with their whale oils; and they were enabled by the great premiums given by their government, to undersell the French fisherman, aided by feebler premiums, and the American, aided by his poverty alone. Nor is it certain, that these speculations were not made at the risk of the British government, to suppress the French and American fishermen in their only market. Some remedy seemed necessary. Perhaps it would not have been a bad one, to subject, by a general law, the merchandise of every nation, and of every nature, to pay additional duties in the ports of France, exactly equal to the premiums and drawbacks given on the same merchandise, by their own government. This might not only counteract the effect of premiums in the instance of whale oils, but attack the whole British system of bounties and drawbacks, by the aid of which, they make London the centre of commerce for the whole earth. A less general remedy, but an effectual one, was, to prohibit the oils of all European nations; the treaty with England requiring only, that she should be treated as well as the most favored European nation. But the remedy adopted was, to prohibit all oils, without exception.

To know how this remedy will operate, we must consider the quantity of whale oil which France consumes annually, the quantity which she obtains from her own fishery; and, if she obtains less than she consumes, we are to consider what will follow the prohibition.

The annual consumption of France, as stated by a person who has good opportunities of knowing it, is as follows:

Other calculations, or say rather, conjectures, reduce the consumption to about half this. It is treating these conjectures with great respect, to place them on an equal footing with the estimate of the person before alluded to, and to suppose the truth half way between them. But we will do it, and call the present consumption of France only sixty thousand quintals, or three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons a year. This consumption is increasing fast, as the practice of lighting cities is becoming more general, and the superior advantages of lighting them with whale oil, are but now beginning to be known.

What do the fisheries of France furnish? She has employed, this year, fifteen vessels in the southern, and two in the northern fishery, carrying forty-five hundred tons in the whole, or two hundred and sixty-five each, on an average. The English ships, led by Nantuckois as well as the French, have never averaged in the southern fishery, more than one-fifth of their burthen, in the best year. The fifteen ships of France, according to this ground of calculation, and supposing the present to have been one of the best years, should have brought, one with another, one-fifth of two hundred and sixty-five tons, or fifty-three tons each. But we are told, they have brought near the double of that, to wit, one hundred tons each, and fifteen hundred tons in the whole. Supposing the two northern vessels to have brought home the cargo which is common from the northern fishery, to wit, twenty-five tons each, the whole produce this year, will then be fifteen hundred and fifty tons. This is five and a half months' provision, or two-fifths of the annual consumption. To furnish for the whole year, would require forty ships of the same size, in years as fortunate as the present, and eighty-five, communibus annis; forty-four tons, or one-sixth of the burthen, being as high an average as should be counted on, one year with another; and the number must be increased, with the increasing consumption. France, then, is evidently not yet in a condition to supply her own wants. It is said, indeed, she has a large stock on hand unsold, occasioned by the English competition. Thirty-three thousand quintals, including this year's produce, are spoken of: this is between six and seven months' provision; and supposing by the time this is exhausted that the next year's supply comes in, that will enable her to go on five or six months longer; say a twelvemonth in the whole. But at the end of the twelve month, what is to be done? The manufactures depending on this article, cannot maintain their competition against those of other countries, if deprived of their equal means. When the alternative, then, shall be presented, of letting them drop, or opening the ports to foreign whale oil, it is presumable the latter will be adopted as the lesser evil. But it will be too late for America. Her fishery, annihilated during the late war, only began to raise its head on the prospect of a market held out by this country. Crushed by the Arret of September the 28th, in its first feeble effort to revive, it will rise no more. Expeditions, which require the expense of the outfit of vessels, and from nine to twelve months' navigation, as the southern fishery does, most frequented by the Americans, cannot be undertaken in sole reliance on a market, which is opened and shut from one day to another, with little or no warning. The English alone, then, will remain to furnish these supplies, and they must be received even from them. We must accept bread from our enemies, if our friends cannot furnish it. This comes exactly to the point, to which that government has been looking. She fears no rivals in the whale fishery but America: or rather, it is the whale fishery of America, of which she is endeavoring to possess herself. It is for this object, she is making the present extraordinary efforts, by bounties and other encouragements; and her success, so far, is very flattering. Before the war, she had not one hundred vessels in the whale trade, while America employed three hundred and nine. In 1786, Great Britain employed one hundred and fifty-one vessels; in 1787, two hundred and eighty-six; in 1788, three hundred and fourteen, nearly the ancient American number; while the latter has fallen to about eighty. They have just changed places then; England having gained exactly what America has lost. France, by her ports and markets, holds the balance between the two contending parties, and gives the victory, by opening and shutting them, to which she pleases. We have still precious remains of seamen educated in this fishery, and capable, by their poverty, their boldness and address, of recovering it from the English in spite of their bounties. But this Arret endangers the transferring to Great Britain every man of them, who is not invincibly attached to his native soil. There is no other nation, in present condition, to maintain a competition with Great Britain in the whale fishery. The expense at which it is supported on her part, seems enormous. Two hundred and fifty-five vessels, of seventy-five thousand four hundred and thirty-six tons, employed by her this year, in the northern fishery, at forty-two men each; and fifty-nine in the southern, at eighteen men each, make eleven thousand seven hundred and seventy-two men. These are known to have cost the government fifteen pounds each, or one hundred and seventy-six thousand five hundred and eighty pounds, in the whole, and that, to employ the principal part of them, from three to four months only. The northern ships have brought home twenty, and the southern sixty tons of oil, on an average; making eighty-six hundred and forty tons. Every ton of oil, then, has cost the government twenty pounds in bounty. Still, if they can beat us out of the field and have it to themselves, they will think their money well employed. If France undertakes, solely, the competition against them, she must do it at equal expense. The trade is too poor to support itself. The eighty-five ships, necessary to supply even her present consumption, bountied, as the English are, will require a sacrifice of twelve hundred and eighty-five thousand two hundred livres a year, to maintain three thousand five hundred and seventy seamen, and that a part of the year only; and if she will put it to twelve thousand men, in competition with England, she must sacrifice, as they do, four or five millions a year. The same number of men might, with the same bounty, be kept in as constant employ, carrying stone from Bayonne to Cherbourg, or coal from Newcastle to Havre, in which navigations they would be always at hand, and become good seamen. The English consider among their best sailors, those employed in carrying coal from Newcastle to London. France cannot expect to raise her fishery, even to the supply of her own consumption in one year, or in several years. Is it not better, then, by keeping her ports open to the United States, to enable them to aid in maintaining the field against the common adversary, till she shall be in condition to take it herself, and to supply her own wants? Otherwise, her supplies must aliment that very force which is keeping her under. On our part, we can never be dangerous competitors to France. The extent to which we can exercise this fishery, is limited to that of the barren island of Nantucket, and a few similar barren spots; its duration, to the pleasure of this government, as we have no other market. A material observation must be added here: sudden vicissitudes of opening and shutting ports, do little injury to merchants settled on the opposite coast, watching for the opening, like the return of a tide, and ready to enter with it. But they ruin the adventurer, whose distance requires six months' notice. Those who are now arriving from America, in consequence of the Arret of December the 29th, will consider it as the false light which has led them to their ruin. They will be apt to say, that they come to the ports of France by invitation of that Arret, that the subsequent one of September the 28th, which drives them from those ports, founds itself on a single principle, viz. "that the prohibition of foreign oils, is the most useful encouragement which can be given to that branch of industry." They will say, that, if this be a true principle, it was as true on the 29th of December, 1787, as on the 20th of September, 1788; it was then weighed against other motives, judged weaker and overruled, and it is hard it should be now revived, to ruin them.

The refinery for whale oil, lately established at Rouen, seems to be an object worthy of national attention. In order to judge of its importance, the different qualities of whale oil must be noted. Three qualities are known in the American and English markets. 1st. That of the spermaceti whale. 2d. Of the Greenland whale. 3d. Of the Brazil whale. 1. The spermaceti whale found by the Nantuckois in the neighborhood of the western islands, to which they had gone in pursuit of other whales, retired thence to the coast of Guinea, afterwards to that of Brazil, and begins now to be best found in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, and even of Cape Horn. He is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fisherman. The inhabitants of Brazil make little expeditions from their coast, and take some of these fish. But the Americans are the only distant people who have been in the habit of seeking and attacking him, in numbers. The British, however, led by the Nantuckois, whom they have decoyed into their service, have begun this fishery. In 1785, they had eighteen ships in it, in 1787, thirty-eight; in 1788, fifty-four, or, as some say, sixty-four. I have calculated on the middle number, fifty-nine. Still they take but a very small proportion of their own demand; we furnish the rest. Theirs is the only market to which we carry that oil, because it is the only one where its properties are known. It is luminous, resists coagulation by cold, to the forty-first degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and fourth of Reaumur's, and yields no smell at all; it is used, therefore, within doors, to lighten shops, and even in the richest houses, for antichambers, stairs, galleries, &c. It sells at the London market for treble the price of common whale oil. This enables the adventurer to pay the duty of eighteen pounds five shillings sterling the ton, and still to have a living profit. Besides the mass of oil produced from the whole body of the whale, his head yields three or four barrels of what is called head matter, from which is made the solid spermaceti, used for medicine and candles. This sells by the pound, at double the price of the oil. The disadvantage of this fishery is, that the sailors are from nine to twelve months absent on the voyage; of course, they are not at hand on any sudden emergency, and are even liable to be taken before they know that war is begun. It must be added, on the subject of this whale, that he is rare and shy, soon abandoning the grounds where he is hunted. This fishery, less losing than the other, and often profitable, will occasion it to be so thronged, soon, as to bring it on a level with the other. It will then require the same extensive support, or to be abandoned.

2. The Greenland whale oil is next in quality. It resists coagulation by cold, to thirty-six degrees of Fahrenheit, and two of Reaumur; but it has a smell insupportable within doors, and is not luminous. It sells, therefore, in London, at about sixteen pounds the ton. This whale is clumsy and timid; he dives when struck, and comes up to breathe by the first cake of ice, where the fisherman needs little address or courage to find and take him. This is the fishery mostly frequented by European nations; it is this fish which yields the fin in quantity, and the voyages last about three or four months.