LETTER of the Minister to Messrs. de la Rochalard and Duclos, forbidding in the Islands the outfitting of ships for the coast of Guinea

The Agent of the Compagnie des Indes has informed it that two ships have been fitted out in this island for the coast of Guinea, on permissions given by M. le Chevalier de Feuquieres, on the strength of what the shipowners represented to him: that these Vessels, which had left the Ports of France for the coast of Juda, had brought back part of the merchandise of their cargoes that they had been unable to sell on the spot, because of the war among the nègre Kings. The King did not approve that, on so frivolous a pretext, M. de Feuquieres granted such permissions, since only the Company, and the Merchants of the Kingdom to whom it grants the right, may carry on the trade in nègres and other merchandise of the coast of Guinea. Moreover, these outfittings would be too disadvantageous, and there is every reason to believe that those who made them wanted to find a new way of carrying on foreign trade, on which I have sent the necessary orders to M. le Marquis de Champigny and to M. Blondel.