7i6 A. D. I 701. 



are very fond, tliey can afford to take off the com, timber, iron, cop- 

 per, flax, hemp, &c. of the north at high rates, and yet they are ge- 

 nerally cheaper at Amfterdam than in the places they were brought 

 from, becaufe of the great gains they (the Amfterdammers) make 

 by the aflbrtments they carry to the north. And the Dutch com- 

 merce to Portugal is likewife on the fame footing. For thefe and fuch 

 reafons,' faid the Nantois, ' we fear we cannot depend on being re- 

 gularly fupplied with every thing diredly from the north. The Dutch, 

 moreover, take off very great quantities of our wines and brandies, 

 which they brew, mix, and fit, to the tafle of the northern people. 

 Thefe refledions apply not only to Holland, but alfo to Hamburgh, 

 which city is likewife a flaple or florehoufe for all the trade of the 

 north, and is ufually very helpful to us in taking off our commodities, 

 and in fupplying us with what we want. Another powerful reafon 

 is, the frequent alteration of our coin, which abfolutely prevents fo- 

 reigners from fending us their fhips and merchandize *.' 

 The other deputies replied, ' that it was plain, thofe of Nantes own- 

 ed the evils which the board complained of, particularly that the re- 

 tailers in France carry on a difadvantageous trade with the Dutch ; 

 and that it is certainly more fure and more profitable for us to fell 

 our goods at home, than to carry them to the northern people to fell. 

 In the firft: cafe, it is we who give the law ; in the other, we receive 

 it. No merchant is ignorant of the effeds of this difference, the one 

 being ever profitable, the other very uncertain and often very perni- 

 cious, and the common fource of bankruptcies.' They add a little 



"urther : ' we have heretofore feen 5000 foreign fhips come into the 

 kingdom to take them off, but our being deprived of trade with the 

 Englifh, and our duty of 50 fols per ton, have interrupted this great 

 commerce f .' In farther anfwer to thofe of Nantes, the council ' dif- 

 allows, that corn and other commodities of the north are fold cheaper 

 in Holland than in the places from whence they are fetched. ' For,' 



fay they, ' this never happens, but when the quantities imported into 

 Holland are fo large that they exceed the confumption or demand for 

 them : in this therefor,' fay they, ' there is nothing extraordinary,, 

 being the cafe everywhere elfe. As they plead only for having the 

 northern goods brought in alone, and diredtly from the places of their 

 growth and manufadure, without being firfl landed in any other 

 country, they cannot believe that the Dutch will, on France's mak- 

 ing fuch a regulation, iuffer above 4000 fhips, which they employ 



* The blind policy of altering the national fenfible of the value of the carrying trade. But it 



urrency has often been ruinous to France, which muft be acknovvleged that their arguments apply 



>ught to be a lefTon to other nations to guard with greater force to perifhable goods (and luch 



againft it with the ftritleft vigilance. Sec Le Blanc moll of the French commodities are) than to thofe 



fur les morwyei Francoifcs. M. which can wait a leafonable time for a market. ^, 



f This new board of trade were not Cufiiciently I 



