Read Online Daily Life During the French Revolution by James M. Anderson - Free Book Online
Authors: James M. Anderson
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full of
articles for sale, and no less crowded with people, access being had to them by
boards laid from one to the other.
FOREIGN TRADE
In lean years of crop-destroying weather, grain was
imported from the eastern Mediterranean through the port of Marseille. The
prosperous city of Nantes was also a thriving seaport, and when Young arrived
there in 1788, he described the commerce:
The
accounts I received here of the trade of the place, made the number of ships in
the sugar trade 120, which import to the amount of about 32 millions; 20 are in
the slave trade; these are by far the greatest articles of their commerce; they
have an export of corn, [grain] which is considerable from the provinces washed
by the Loire.... Wines and brandy are great articles, and manufactures even
from Switzerland, particularly printed linens and cottons, in imitation of
Indian, which the Swiss make cheaper than the French fabrics of the same kind,
yet they are brought quite across France.
He was again impressed by the trade when visiting Le Havre
in 1788. On August 16, he found the city “fuller of motion, life and activity,
than any place I have been in France.” He continued:
There
is not only an immense commerce carried on here, but it is on a rapid increase;
there is no doubt its being the fourth town in France for trade. The harbour is
a forest of masts.... They have some very large merchantmen in the Guinea trade
of 500 or 600 tons but by far their greatest commerce is to the West-India
Sugar Islands.... Situation must of necessity give them a great coasting trade,
for as ships of burthen cannot go up to Rouen, this place is the emporium for
that town, for Paris, and all the navigation of the Seine, which is very great.
A few days later, on August 18, Young was in Honfleur,
seven and a half miles up the Seine from Le Havre on the south bank where the
estuary is still wide enough for large ships. He noted: “Honfleur is a small
town, full of industry, and a bason [sic] full of ships, with some Guineamen
[probably slave ships] as large as Le Havre.”
From records and from observers’ notes, it is clear that
French commerce in foreign trade, employing many thousands of people, was
flourishing up to the time of the revolution. In 1787, 82.8 percent of French
exports went to European countries and the Ottoman Empire, while 57.5 percent
of trade was in the form of imports such as sugar from the West Indies or
spices from the East. The re-export trade of colonial goods also thrived. Of the
9,500 kilograms of coffee that arrived in 1790, 7,940 were exported. Much of
the country’s commercial prosperity rested on the colonial economy, and very
profitable trade was conducted with the French West Indies, especially in
sugar. The cities of Bordeaux, Nantes, and Rouen were the major beneficiaries
of this commerce.
May 1787 brought a blow to French industry in the form of
the Eden Treaty with England, which removed many tariffs and angered French
manufacturers and their workers, since they all knew that they could not
compete in price with English products. Some French entrepreneurs wanted a war
with England to cut off the importation of their goods and to save their own
industries. The major problem was that England was buying very little in the way
of French fabrics, pottery, grains, meat, or anything else, while English goods
flooded into France and were readily sold. Some citizens of Paris held a more
optimistic view that English competition would in the long run improve the
quality of competitive French products and that eventually France would benefit
more than England. The revolution and subsequent war with England ended further
conjecture on the subject.
FISHING
The Loire was famous for salmon and carp, and the Rhine for
perch; but fishermen had to be authorized to fish, even in the Seine. More
lucrative perhaps was open-sea fishing. In 1773, records indicate there were
264 French boats of 25 tons
articles for sale, and no less crowded with people, access being had to them by
boards laid from one to the other.
FOREIGN TRADE
In lean years of crop-destroying weather, grain was
imported from the eastern Mediterranean through the port of Marseille. The
prosperous city of Nantes was also a thriving seaport, and when Young arrived
there in 1788, he described the commerce:
The
accounts I received here of the trade of the place, made the number of ships in
the sugar trade 120, which import to the amount of about 32 millions; 20 are in
the slave trade; these are by far the greatest articles of their commerce; they
have an export of corn, [grain] which is considerable from the provinces washed
by the Loire.... Wines and brandy are great articles, and manufactures even
from Switzerland, particularly printed linens and cottons, in imitation of
Indian, which the Swiss make cheaper than the French fabrics of the same kind,
yet they are brought quite across France.
He was again impressed by the trade when visiting Le Havre
in 1788. On August 16, he found the city “fuller of motion, life and activity,
than any place I have been in France.” He continued:
There
is not only an immense commerce carried on here, but it is on a rapid increase;
there is no doubt its being the fourth town in France for trade. The harbour is
a forest of masts.... They have some very large merchantmen in the Guinea trade
of 500 or 600 tons but by far their greatest commerce is to the West-India
Sugar Islands.... Situation must of necessity give them a great coasting trade,
for as ships of burthen cannot go up to Rouen, this place is the emporium for
that town, for Paris, and all the navigation of the Seine, which is very great.
A few days later, on August 18, Young was in Honfleur,
seven and a half miles up the Seine from Le Havre on the south bank where the
estuary is still wide enough for large ships. He noted: “Honfleur is a small
town, full of industry, and a bason [sic] full of ships, with some Guineamen
[probably slave ships] as large as Le Havre.”
From records and from observers’ notes, it is clear that
French commerce in foreign trade, employing many thousands of people, was
flourishing up to the time of the revolution. In 1787, 82.8 percent of French
exports went to European countries and the Ottoman Empire, while 57.5 percent
of trade was in the form of imports such as sugar from the West Indies or
spices from the East. The re-export trade of colonial goods also thrived. Of the
9,500 kilograms of coffee that arrived in 1790, 7,940 were exported. Much of
the country’s commercial prosperity rested on the colonial economy, and very
profitable trade was conducted with the French West Indies, especially in
sugar. The cities of Bordeaux, Nantes, and Rouen were the major beneficiaries
of this commerce.
May 1787 brought a blow to French industry in the form of
the Eden Treaty with England, which removed many tariffs and angered French
manufacturers and their workers, since they all knew that they could not
compete in price with English products. Some French entrepreneurs wanted a war
with England to cut off the importation of their goods and to save their own
industries. The major problem was that England was buying very little in the way
of French fabrics, pottery, grains, meat, or anything else, while English goods
flooded into France and were readily sold. Some citizens of Paris held a more
optimistic view that English competition would in the long run improve the
quality of competitive French products and that eventually France would benefit
more than England. The revolution and subsequent war with England ended further
conjecture on the subject.
FISHING
The Loire was famous for salmon and carp, and the Rhine for
perch; but fishermen had to be authorized to fish, even in the Seine. More
lucrative perhaps was open-sea fishing. In 1773, records indicate there were
264 French boats of 25 tons
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