[TRAITE DE 1786] Observations de la Chambre du commerce de Normandie, sur le Traité de commerce entre la France & l'Angleterre. Suivi du plan d'une Banque nationale de France

Second, enlarged edition of these rather protectionist reflections, which prompted Dupont de Nemours to write a refutation (Lettre à la Chambre de commerce de Normandie).

Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers, now covered with modern marbled paper, red edges.

The second part is entitled Plan d'une banque nationale de France, ou d'une caisse générale de recettes & paiements des deniers publics & particuliers, and bears the Jersey imprint, 1787. Frère I, 210 (for the first edition of 1787).

The original edition appeared in 1787 and consisted of only a 75-page pamphlet.

The Commercial Treaty of September 1786, sometimes referred to as the Eden–Rayneval Treaty after its signatories, was intended to settle all outstanding trade disputes between France and England following the American War of Independence.

The treaty came into effect on 10 March 1787 and comprised forty-seven articles. Its main provisions stipulated that, for imports into England, duties on wine, brandy, and oils would be reduced, while luxury goods, mirrors, and articles de Paris would henceforth be subject to a duty of only 12%.

In return, import duties in France on woollen and cotton fabrics, as well as on earthenware and pottery, were likewise reduced to 12%; the same applied to iron and hardware. Conversely, silk and mixed-silk fabrics remained prohibited in England, while none of the major English manufactured goods were banned in France.

The treaty proved highly advantageous to England: the lowering of protection on certain French industries soon worked in its favour. It disrupted France’s fragile but relatively balanced economy, resulting in a flood of cheaper—and often better-made—English products on the French market and a general fall in prices.

As early as 1787, and increasingly in 1788 and 1789, this influx led to the unemployment of thousands of workers and the impoverishment and bankruptcy of countless artisans reduced to a state of destitution, prompting protests from the very moment of its signing.