5431. MONOPOLY, Farmers General.—[further continued].
The body [Farmers General]
to which this monopoly [tobacco] was
given, was not mercantile. Their object is
to simplify as much as possible the administration
of their affairs. They sell for cash;
they purchase, therefore, with cash. Their
interest, their principles and their practice,
seem opposed to the general interest of the
kingdom, which would require that this capital
article should be laid open to a free exchange
for the productions of this country.
So far does the spirit of simplifying their
operations govern this body, that relinquishing
the advantages to be derived from a competition
of sellers, they contracted some time
ago with a single person (Mr. Morris), for
three years' supplies of American tobacco, to
be paid for in cash. They obliged themselves
too, expressly, to employ no other person to
purchase in America, during that term. In
consequence of this, the mercantile houses of
France, concerned in sending her productions
to be exchanged for tobacco, cut off, for three
years, from the hope of selling these tobaccos
in France, were of necessity to abandon that
commerce. In consequence of this, too, a
single individual, constituted sole purchaser
of so great a proportion of the tobaccos made,
had the price in his own power. A great reduction
in it took place, and that, not only
on the quantity he bought, but on the whole
quantity made. The loss to the States producing
the article did not go to cheapening
it for their friends here. Their price was
fixed. What was gained on their consumption
was to enrich the person purchasing it;
the rest, the monopolists and merchants of
other countries.—
To Count de Montmorin. Washington ed. ii, 186.
(P.
1787)
