1788-December-07: Seeking to counter British influence and placate American demands, the French government issued a decree admitting American whale oil into …

1788-December-07: Seeking to counter British influence and placate American demands, the French government issued a decree admitting American whale oil into the French West Indies. This ordinance was highly protectionist, as it simultaneously forbade the importation of whale oil from any other foreign nation, granting the United States a specific monopoly. During this same year, approximately two-thirds of the produce from American codfisheries found a free market in the French islands, and Saint-Domingue exported fifty thousand barrels of sugar to the United States. These figures illustrated the massive scale of the legitimate trade that had developed despite ongoing diplomatic friction. Logan notes that these concessions were a deliberate attempt by France to “woo the Americans from their British predilections” through commercial favoritism.