1787-December-29: France issued a new decree that admitted American whale oil to the West Indies while forbidding the product from other foreign nations.

1787-December-29: France issued a new decree that admitted American whale oil to the West Indies while forbidding the product from other foreign nations. This move was intended to woo the United States away from British commercial influence and secure a reliable supply of essential goods. By this time, two-thirds of the produce from American codfisheries was being sold in the French West Indies. Additionally, Saint-Domingue was shipping approximately fifty thousand barrels of sugar annually to American ports. These concessions proved that French statesmen increasingly viewed the United States as the necessary economic complement to their Caribbean empire.