DECREE of the Conseil d’Etat, setting at Five livres per quintal the tax imposed on Cod of Foreign Fishery that will be imported into the Windward and Leeward Islands of America

EXPERIENCE having shown the necessity of providing the Black people of the Windward Islands with an assured subsistence in the competition of cod from the foreign Fishery with that of the French Fishery, a tax of Eight livres per quintal was first established, and then one of Five livres only, on the introduction there of this commodity by Foreigners, in order to offset, as far as possible, the difference in the prices of the one supply and the other; thereafter the King, having recognized that it was fitting to authorize the same competition at Saint-Domingue, while reducing to a lower rate the tax to be imposed on foreign importation in his various Colonies of America, His Majesty, by Decree of his Conseil of 30 August 1784, permitted Foreigners to introduce dried Cod there, solely through the designated entrepôt Ports, on the charge of paying a duty of Three livres tournois per quintal, the amount of which would be returned in Bounties of encouragement for the introduction of Cod and salted Fish coming from the National Fishery.