Were congeniality of feeling, either in an indivi dual or a national sense, the regulator of commerce, the intercourse between the French and Americans would be great; for no nations ever sympathized more cordially with the sufferings of each other, or were more decided in ascribing them to the aggressions of England. But a mutual want of capital restricts the connection. The Americans require long cre dit, and to give credit exceeds the means of the French. The cotton, tobacco, and rice of the United States are paid partly by wine and brandy, but in a very slight degree by manufactures. This branch of trade will increase with the population and wealth of the United States; but the most ready means of extending French commerce would be with England—a country of customers, whose acti vity supplies them with the means-of giving in ex change a number of useful commodities. At pre• sent the intercourse is considerable, but a partial re. duction of the customhouse duties, on both sides, would extend greatly the imports from England, viz. cottons, hardware, earthenware, copper, tin, coals,—while it would give a correspondent increase to the French exports, of which the staple articles are wine and brandy ; the smaller silks, olive oil, fruit, butter, poultry, and, when our laws allow, corn and butcher-meat. In the import of the produce of the soil from France, our course would be clear and di rect, our climate not admitting of the growth of the vine, the olive, or the mulberry ; but, in regard to manufactures, it is a matter of nicety to say in what articles an exchange would take place, our late im provements in machinery counterbalancing the cheap labour of France in several branches (such as lace), in which our competition would formerly have been hopeless. It is evident, however, that there would be a series of varied and extensive exchanges, not so much perhaps in distinct articles, as in different qualities or shades of quality in the same article or branch of manufacture. These exchanges are ne cessary for completing assortments in shops, in ware houses, in shipments, and their extent would be such as to be comprehended only by those who are fami liar with the endless ramifications of manufacture, or who are aware of the striking exemplification of this truth, afforded by our intercourse with France, in the auspicious interval between the commercial treaty in 1786 and the rupture in 1793. • The chief commercial business of Paris is neces sarily inland, but it is the centre of exchange transac tions for France, foreign as well as inland ; as London is for England, and Amsterdam for Holland. Havre de Grace is the channel of the maritime intercourse of the capital,—the outlet for its exports, and the medium through which it receives colonial produce, raw materials, and foreign manufactures. Bordeaux is a seaport of great activity, as well for the export of wine and brandy, as for the import of sugar, cof fee, and cotton. Marseilles, a larger but a less bust ling city, continues the emporium for the trade with Italy and the Levant. Nantes has suffered greatly by the loss of St Domingo, as well as by the aboli tion of the slave-trade, of which it was the centre. It still exports to Martinique and Guadaloupe linen, hardware, printed cottons, and, like Bordeaux, re ceives, in return, sugar, coffee, and raw cotton. Rouen, though accessible to vessels of burden, is, like.Lyons and Lille, chiefly remarkable for manu factures.
The currency of France is almost entirely metal lic, there being only one bank (la Banque de France), the circulation of which is, in a manner, confined to the metropolis; the branch banks at Lyons and Rouen finding it very difficult to extend their issues. The Bank of France is a very solid establishment, possess ing funds to the amount of L.4,500,000, while its paper in circulation seldom exceeds L.8,000,000. Though, on all permanent loans, the rate of interest in France is considerably higher than with us, being generally from 6 to 7 per cent., the bank discounts mercantile bills at so low a rate as 4. per cent. The amount of metallic currency in France cannot be short of L.80,000,000 or L.90,000,000 Sterling, and the general introduction of bank notes would effect a saving to the nation of L.2,000,000 or L.3,000,000
annually. Saving banks, causes d'epargne, have been lately introduced at Paris.
Land carriage in France costa only from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per cwt. for 100 miles ; a cheapness which facilitates the transport of merchandise to the va rious annual fairs which are still held in every great town in the kingdom, exactly as was done by our forefathers a century ago. This periodical routine begins by the foire de Longchamps, which is held annually at Paris in spring, and is followed by a long list of provincial fairs, of which the chief are those of Beaucaire in Languedoc, and Guibray in Nor mandy.
The weights and measures of France were reduc ed, as is well known, to a very simple and uniform scale soon after the Revolution, but there has been much difficulty in accustoming the inhabitants, par ticularly in country districts, to the adoption of the new system, which unluckily preserved none of the names with which they were familiar. In 1812, a kind of compromise took place, government sane - tioning the retention of the old names, such as pounds, ounces, ells, and bushels, but requiring that their contents should be calculated by a reference to the new standard. It is, accordingly, on this footing that business is now transacted in France. The new weights and measures are, in general, larger by a fraction than the old, and the use of the latter is prohibited by law.
The colonial possessions of France are quite un suited to her greatness in other respects. The in surrection engendered by the Revolution deprived her of the western half of St Domingo, a rich and beautiful territory containing formerly more negroes, and exporting more produce, than all the British West Indies together. The French government seems to have relinquished the hope of regaining this country, at least by military means, and to li mit their ambition to their remaining colonies, Mar tinique, Guadeloupe, and Cayenne. The two first are, like most of our West India islands, cultivated to a considerable extent, but capable of much im provement. The petty island of Marie Galante is in a similar state, but Cayenne forms a part of most extensive tract, of which one corner only is as yet rendered productive, and which may eventually be come a great settlement, though on the score of health it is as unpromising as the adjacent colonies of Demarara and Surinam. Before the loss of St Domingo the annual import into France amounted to 70,000 hhds. of Muscovado or brown sugar, 60,000 hhds. clayed, and nearly 20,000 of fine clay ed. Of this very large supply there were exported nearly 40,000 hhds. of brown, and above 60,000 hhds. of clayed, forming, exclusive of any duty, an an nual value of between L.2,000,000 and L.3,000,000 Sterling, and affording a most acceptable exchange for a number of imported commodities. But the far greater part of this import has long been lost to France, no sugar is now exported from that country, while, of the quantity required for its consumption, and amounting to about L.2,000,000 Sterling, a con• siderable part is received from England and the Spanish West Indies.
In Africa the French possess Goree and some fee tories near the mouth of the Senegal. In the East they have, in the isle of Bourbon, as in Pondicherri, Chandemagore, and some smaller factories on the mainland of India, the means of carrying on com mercial intercourse, and their vessels are, like the Americans, admitted to trade with Calcutta, Ma dras, and other British settlements, on payment of moderate dues ; but they possess no power of an noying or even of resisting us in the event of hostili ties. The retention of the Isle of France, at the peace of 1814, deprived them of the great recep tacle for their privateers in the East ; and, in a very different part of the world, the continent of North America, they retain nothing since the cession of Louisiana in 1803. In the seas of Europe, Corsica is almost the only insular possession of the French. They have no great maritime fortresses, like Gibral tar or Malta, and no dependencies of the nature of the Ionian islands.