3239. FREE PORTS, Honfleur.—[further continued].
The enfranchising the port of Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine for
multiplying the connections with us, is at present
an object. It meets with opposition in the
ministry but I am in hopes that it will prevail.
If natural causes operate uninfluenced by accidental
circumstances, Bourdeaux and Honfleur
or Havre, must ultimately take the greatest part
of our commerce. The former by the Garonne
and canal of Languedoc opens the Southern
provinces to us; the latter, the northern ones
and Paris. Honfleur will be peculiarly advantageous
for our rice and whale oil, of which
the principal consumption is at Paris. Being
free, they can be reexported when the market
here shall happen to be overstocked.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. ii, 92.
(P.
1787)
