A. D. 1784. ss 



importance of a banking company, whofe original capital was but half 

 a million flerling, it is proper now to obferve, that the government of 

 France interfered in their favour, and that that interference was not, as 

 it fometimes happens in like cafes, prejudicial, but of real fervice, to 

 the affairs of the company, who, though embarrafTed by their advances 

 to government (which turned out to be the real and only caufe of their 

 diftrefs) had never been infolvent. The addition of about /^i 25,000 

 flerling to their capital by a new fubfcription, together with fome pru- 

 dent regulations eilabliflied by the proprietors, in a very fhort time re- 

 llored their affairs, and raifed them to fo profperous a condition, that in 

 about ten months after their floppage their flock rofe to the aflonifhing 

 price of 235 per cent, a price almoft fufHcient to make the public appre- 

 henfive of a repetition of the MifUfTippi fcheme (14'" Augufl). 



During the war the French had been driven by necefllty to admit the 

 entry of foreign veffels- in their Wefl-India iflands, that they might take 

 all their own feamen onboard their fhips of war, and that their iflands 

 might not be flarved by the total failure of the fupplies, which ought 

 to have been conveyed by their own merchant fhips. And the Span- 

 iards, in fpite of their charadleriftic extraordinary jealoufy, were obliged 

 to adopt the fame expedient. But the temporary advantage was pro- 

 ductive of confequences permanently ruinous to their commerce, and to 

 their naval power, which it was intended to fupport. The Wefl-Indian 

 produce, which ought to have gone home to France, was carried to 

 America and other countries in return for provifions, lumber, and ma- 

 nufadlures. The merchants of France, thus thrown out of their trade, 

 became bankrupts in great numbers. The national revenue deeply felt 

 the lofs of the befl branch of the national trade. And the navy, which 

 at all times depended chiefly upon the Wefl-India trade for a il:pply of 

 feamen, muft have been laid up, if the war had continued another year. 

 The French and Spanifh governments, fully fenfible of the very great 

 diflrefs, and of the ruinous policy, to which the necefllty of their affairs 

 bad driven them, immediately after the preliminaries of the peace were 

 figned, began to take meafures for abridging, and foon after totally 

 aboliihing, the liberty they had given to foreigners in their Wefl-India 

 ports. In March 1784 the French confined the Americans, who had . 

 hitherto been admitted in feveral ports of S\ Domingo, to the one har- 

 bour of Cap Nicholas Mole; and at the fame time limited their exports 

 to the two articles of melaffes and rum (taffia*), and threatened to feize 

 all veflels, which fhould be found in any other port of the ifland after 

 the lo"" day of April, or which fhould be found having onboard more 



• In the French Weft-Indies thetafSa was made Nicholas were very glad, when they could quietly ' 

 fo exceedingly bad, in confequence of the reftric- get an opportunity of puivhafing- a puncheon of 

 tions of the gOTernraent, that the people of Cap Jamaica rum, i 



