3122. FRANCE, Commerce with.—
The
mutual extension of their commerce was
among the fairest advantages to be derived
to France and the United States, from the
independence of the latter. An exportation
of eighty millions, chiefly in raw materials, is
supposed to constitute the present limits of
the commerce of the United States with the
nations of Europe; limits, however, which extend
as their population increases. To draw
the best proportion of this into the ports of
France, rather than of any other nation, is
believed to be the wish and interest of both.—
To Count de Montmorin. Washington ed. ii, 186.
(P.
1787)