Mr. Dix to Mr.
Seward
No. 6.]
Legation of the United States,
Paris,
January 8, 1867.
Sir: I enclose a translation of an extract
copied from a Havre letter into the Moniteur of this morning, showing
the friendly construction put upon the recent arrangement, which was the
subject of your despatch by the Atlantic telegraph, in the commercial
districts of France.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Untitled]
[From the Moniteur, January 8,
1867.—Translation.]
They write to us from Havre, January 1, to this effect:
The merchants of our port have received with great satisfaction the
news given by the Moniteur this morning, of the abolition of tonnage
duties on French ships arriving in the United States. Reciprocal
exemption had already been granted to American ships entering French
ports.
Our relations with the United States must receive a new impulse from
the abrogation of this duty, which amounted to five francs a ton,
carpenter’s measure, and was a very heavy charge, especially for
vessels of large tonnage. We cannot better give an idea of this,
than by citing a fact connected with the trade between this port and
the United States.
The steamers of our postal service which make twenty-six (26) voyages
a year have heretofore been obliged to pay, on arriving in New York,
a sum exceeding ten thousand francs ($2,000) each. The liberal
measure which the American and French governments have just taken
effects an annual saving of nearly 300,000 francs ($60,000) to the
General Transatlantic Company alone.
We can judge from this single instance of the importance to all
French commerce of the abolition of this tonnage duty.
