to return the decree for re-examination, I take the liberty of doing the same by the letter covering it, as in the first line of the seventh page the sense appears to me incomplete, and I wish to be able to give it with correctness. I have the honour to be, &c.

TH: JEFFERSON.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO TRANSACTIONS WITH SPAIN. DEC. 16, 1793. [See Vol. x. p. 114.]

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO MOROCCO, ALGIERS and Prisoners.

[See Vol. x. p. 254.]

DEC. 16, 1793.

REPORT

OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON THE PRIVILEGES AND RESTRICTIONS ON THE COMMERCE OF THE united sTATES

IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. DEC. 16, 1793.

SIR,-According to the pleasure of the House of Representatives, expressed in their resolution of February 23, 1791, I now lay before them a report on the privileges and restrictions on the commerce of the United States in foreign countries. In order to keep the subject within those bounds which I supposed to be under the contemplation of the House, I have restrained my statements to those countries only with which we carry on a commerce of some importance, and to those articles also of our produce which are of sensible weight in the scale of our exports; and even these articles are sometimes grouped together, according to the degree of favour or restriction with which they are received in each country,

and that degree expressed in general terms without detailing the exact duty levied on each article. To have gone fully into these minutiæ, would have been to copy the tariffs and books of rates of the different countries, and to have hidden, under a mass of detail, those general and important truths, the extraction of which, in a simple form, I conceived would best answer the inquiries of the House, by condensing material information within those limits of time and attention, which this portion of their duties may justly claim. The plan, indeed, of minute details which have been impracticable with some countries, for want of information.

Since preparing this report, which was put into its present form in time to have been given in to the last session of Congress, alterations of the conditions of our commerce with some foreign nations have taken place-some of them independent of the war; some arising out of it.

France has proposed to enter into a new treaty of commerce with us, on liberal principles; and has, in the mean time, relaxed some of the restraints mentioned in the report. Spain has, by an ordinance of June last, established New Orleans, Pensacola and St. Augustine into free ports, for the vessels of friendly nations having treaties of commerce with her, provided they touch for a permit at Corcubion in Gallicia, or at Alicant; and our rice is, by the same ordinance, excluded from that country. The circumstances of the war, have necessarily given us freer access to the West Indian islands, whilst they have also drawn on our navigation, vexations and depredations of the most serious nature.

To have endeavoured to describe all these, would have been as impracticable as useless, since the scenes would have been shifting while under description. I therefore think it best to leave the report as it was formed, being adapted to a particular point of time, when things were in their settled order, that is to say, to the summer of 1792. I have the honour to be, &c.

TH: JEFFERSON. To the Speaker of the House of Representatives

of the United States of America.

REPORT, &c.

The Secretary of State, to whom was referred, by the House of Representatives, the report of a committee on the written message of the President of the United States, of the 14th of February, 1791, with instruction to report to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, and the measures which he should think proper to be adopted for the improvement of the commerce and navigation of the same, has had the same under consideration, and thereupon makes the following Report:

THE Countries with which the United States have their chief commercial intercourse are Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, the United Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and their American possessions: and the articles of export, which constitute the basis of that commerce, with their respective amounts, are,

Bread stuff, that is to say; bread grains,

meals, and bread, to the annual amount Dolls.

To descend to articles of smaller value than these, would lead into a minuteness of detail neither necessary nor useful to the present object.

The proportions of our exports, which go to the nations. before mentioned, and to their dominions respectively, are as follows:

To Spain and its dominions,

Portugal and its dominions,

France and its dominions,

Great Britain and its dominions,

Dolls.

2.005.907

1.283.462

4.698.735

9.363.416

These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has been exhausted.

Our navigation, depending on the same commerce, will appear by the following statement of the tonnage of our own vessels, entering in our ports, from those several nations and their possessions, in one year; that is to say.; from October, 1789, to September, 1790, inclusive, as follows:

Of our commercial objects, Spain receives favourably, our bread-stuff, salted fish, wood, ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. On our meals, however, as well as on those of other foreign countries, when re-exported to their colonies, they have lately imposed duties of from half a dollar to two dollars the barrel, the duties being so proportioned

to the current price of their own flour, as that both together are to make the constant sum of nine dollars per barrel.

They do not discourage our rice, pot and pearl ash, salted provisions, or whale oil: but these articles, being in small demand at their markets, are carried thither but in a small degree. Their demand for rice, however, is increasing. Neither tobacco nor indigo are received there. Our commerce is permitted with their Canary islands under the same conditions.

Themselves, and their colonies, are the actual consumers of what they receive from us.

Our navigation is free with the kingdom of Spain; foreign goods being received there in our ships on the same conditions as if carried in their own, or in the vessels of the country of which such goods are the manufacture or produce.

Portugal receives favourably our grain and bread, salted fish, and other salted provisions, wood, tar, pitch, and turpertine.

For flax seed, pot and pearl ash, though not discouraged, there is little demand.

Our ships pay 20 per cent. on being sold to their subjects, and are then free bottoms.

Foreign goods (except those of the East Indies) are received on the same footing in our vessels as in their own, or any others; that is to say, on general duties of from 20 to 28 per cent. and, consequently, our navigation is unobstructed by them. Tobacco, rice and meals are prohibited.

Themselves and their colonies consume what they receive from us.

These regulations extend to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape de Verd islands, except that in these meals and rice are received freely.

France receives favourably our bread-stuff, rice, wood, pot and pearl ashes.

A duty of 5 sous the quintal, or nearly 4' cents, is paid on our tar, pitch, and turpentine. Our whale oils pays 6 livres the quintal, and are the only foreign whale oils admitted. Our indigo pays 5 livres the quintal, their own 21: but a difference of quality, still more than a difference of duty, prevents its seeking that market.