5081. MARKETS, French Asiatic.—
Article
13 of the Arret gives us the privileges and
advantages of native subjects in all the
French possessions in Asia, and in the scales
leading thereto. This expression means at
present the Isles of France and Bourbon, and
will include the Cape of Good Hope, should
any future event put it into the hands of
France. It was with a view to this that I proposed
the expression, because we were then
in hourly expectation of a war, and it was
suspected that France would take possession
of that place. It will, in no case, be considered
as including anything westward of the
Cape of Good Hope. I must observe further,
on this article, that it will only become valuable
on the suppression of their East India
Company; because as long as their monopoly
continues, even native subjects cannot enter
their Asiatic ports for the purposes of commerce.
It is considered, however, as certain
that this company will be immediately suppressed.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. ii, 343.
(P.
1787)
