r: Rodde had called upon me yesterday,
after having been with him, and mentioned to me that there were some
Circumstances which had occasioned suspicions in his (Baron
Campenhausen’s) mind, which perhaps it might be in my power to explain
to his satisfaction— He said that with regard to the vessels there was
no question or difficulty— But that with respect to the Cargoes, the
Emperor had ordered a special
examination and determination to be made upon the sixty-seven vessels
which had arrived at the out-ports since the close of the Navigation
here— That they belonged to a Convoy, about which a
great deal had been said— And after several of them had been
admitted; it was found that one of them had two sets of Papers; by one
of which she had entered as coming only from Gothenburg, and by the
other she appeared to have come from Fernambouco— The Emperor had
therefore directed that a special examination and comparison of the
papers of all these vessels should be made— That of the American vessels
some had all the papers in order, and with regard to them there would be
no difficulty— Some wanted papers for part of their Cargoes; and some
for the whole— Some had certificates that their goods came from
Calcutta, and one from Marie-Galante— That the laws of the Country were
express and positive, as to the papers required; and if any were
admitted which were not provided with those papers it must be by special
indulgence— I observed that I supposed the only paper required by law,
of which these vessels would be destitute would be the certificates of
origin from the Russian Consuls, and the cause of
their wanting them was that they had been originally destined for other
Ports than those of Russia—for the Ports of Denmark or of Prussia; and
they came here only in consequence of finding themselves excluded from
them— That two vessels under the same Circumstances had been admitted
more than two months since, on a representation which I had made to him
and to Count Romanzoff; and that I had considered that as a precedent
which would apply in all other cases of the same description— That, he
said could not be concluded, for in those cases the decision was by the
special order of the Emperor himself— They were solitary cases of
exception from the rigour of the law; but now it had become necessary to
decide upon the general principle; which the Emperor had thought proper
to refer to the council; and my letter to Count Romanzoff had also been
referred to the same body; together with the other papers.— But he said
it was rather hard upon Russia, to have such an immense mass of foreign
merchandizes, thus thrown upon her in a manner, after the navigation
season was closed—especially in the unfavourable state of her exchange—
I told him I was very glad he had given me this intimation, because it
would give me an opportunity of suggesting to him several considerations
which appeared to me both equitable and important in favour of my own
Countrymen— I should not contest the correctness of his principle that
the export trade should be encouraged more than that of imports— It was
natural and reasonable that every Country should wish to have the
general balance of trade in her favour, and should frame her commercial
laws at home upon that foundation— It was my duty to speak only of the
portion of trade carried on between Russia, and my own Countrymen— That
on the trade carried on by the Americans here, the balance was in favour
of Russia and I could not suppose it would be insisted that we should
bring nothing but money in payment of the articles of Russian produce
and manufacture which we come to take— He said he could not conceive how
the balance should be in favour of Russia, when the ships came almost
all laden with colonial articles, one Cargo of which would pay for more
than three return Cargoes of any Russian Articles— I told him, I must
with submission question the correctness of his estimate— I owned that
generally speaking the Russian Exports were more bulky than the Colonial
Articles, for corresponding values, and perhaps if he supposed hemp to
be the only article exported, it might take three Cargoes of that to pay
for a rich Cargo of Colonial wares. But if he would take the
manufactured articles as the standard, the proportion would be far more
equal, and an import Cargo, would certainly not pay for two return
Cargoes of the same burthen— He instanced Indigo— But I told him that
could in the nature of things form but a small part of the imported
Articles— No vessel would be laden with it entirely— Of very few Cargoes
indeed would it form a large proportion. Besides which I added that many
American vessels came here in ballast; and went home laden to the 188amount of 3 or 400000 Rubles. Many American
Merchants who had balances left after the sale of the Cargoes which they
sent here, and the loading of their vessels in return, left the balance
in the hands of their correspondents to be vested in the funds of the
Country, or in goods to be exported the ensuing season which contributed
to support the prices of the Articles, at times when otherwise there
would be scarcely any sales for them at-all— From the very nature of the
trade between the United States, and this Country, it must be the
interest of the Americans who carried it on, to load their vessels with
the richest Cargoes of Russian manufactures that they could carry, that
they might make a profit on the homeward as well as on the outward
voyage— That certainly there was no gold or silver carried from this
Country to America— But he said it was the same thing if the money was
paid by remitting Bills— There was no profit I replied in making
remittances; for whatever the rate of exchange was, by taking a Bill on
London or Amsterdam, a man would never get more than the worth of his
money in the market; while by exporting a Cargo of goods he would always
calculate upon a suitable commercial profit to be made upon them— The
distance of the United States; the necessary length and expense of the
voyage made this profit a more essential object to the merchant— The
opening of the trade to South-America, and the Spanish West-India
islands, had naturally much increased the trade between the United
States and Russia— Those Countries consumed great quantities of the
Russian manufactures; more even than North-America. We took from them
their productions, and carried them those of Russia in return— The Baron
said that au reste, these were political considerations which ought not
to operate in the case of the vessels in question; for if they had come
in conformably to the laws of the Country, they could not at any rate be
subjected to the rejection of their Cargoes on mere views of policy— He
asked me if I had seen an Article in the Gazettes; a letter from
Elseneur, in which it was denied in the strongest terms that there were
any American vessels in this Convoy at Gothenburg— It seemed he said as
if the American Government itself ought to take notice of such charges
as those— I did not at first understand to what Article he alluded; but
when he explained it, I told him, yes, I had seen that Article, which
was dated at Elseneur, but which I presumed he knew was fabricated at
Paris— That in pretending there were no Americans among that fleet at
Gothenburg it had certainly made a false statement— That perhaps there
might be in the fleet some vessels which had assumed the American flag,
without being entitled to it; but as the fleet consisted of about seven
hundred sail; and I did not know of more than twenty-five or thirty
Americans among them, the proportion of real Americans to the whole
number was certainly very small— He asked me what was the reason that
American vessels had been excluded from the Prussian and Danish Ports— I
told him, because the Governments of those Countries had been required
to pass ordinances to that effect, by an authority which they could not
resist— That I need not tell him it was an act involuntary and reluctant
on their part— But the kings of
Prussia and of Denmark were to be pitied rather than blamed for the
rigours extorted from them, and which it could not be supposed would
have been exercised by them, if they retained the sentiment or the
pretension to Independence— He asked me what could be the motive of
France for this rigour— I told him that France had undertaken to levy a
duty of fifty per Cent upon most of the Articles which were brought by
American vessels— If the same Articles could have been freely imported
into Denmark & Prussia upon the payment of moderate duties; the
french Government could not with all its power have prevented the
introduction of them by contraband into France, and therefore could not
have raised that enormous and oppressive duty. France too entertains the
opinion that she cannot injure commerce of any kind without injuring
England; and provided she can strike England cares not through whose
sides the thrust is made.— But was there not a great abuse (he asked) of
the American flag made by the English—did not they counterfeit papers—
Mr:
Harris himself had written him last Summer that he could
not vouch for the authenticity of any papers relating to Cargoes; and
there had been for instance a vessel arrived at Archangel entered as
from Gothenburg, and which for sometime appeared to have papers
perfectly in order— But afterwards another set of Papers had been found—
She had been dispatched from Dublin; and even the Instructions to the
Captain were found, in what cases he was to produce one set of papers,
and when the other— I said there were undoubtedly cases of that kind;
and there were Americans as there were individuals of all other Nations,
who would practice any imposition which could bring them profit— They
were however 189few in number, and easily detected—
Less frequent indeed than those instances of English forgeries
presenting themselves in the semblance of American ship papers, which
had been exposed and denounced by the American Consul himself; and for
the exposure of which I had not escaped the obloquy of the English
public Journals— He asked what could have become of all the vessels of
that convoy from Gothenburg, if there were really seven hundred of them—
I said he would find if he consulted the Gazettes which he had mentioned
to me, that a great number had been captured and would be confiscated by
the Danes. That some had come to the Russian Ports, and that all the
rest had perished in Tempests— But that if he chose to send a messenger
round to all the harbours of the Baltic as far as Gothenburg and on both
its shores, I imagine he would find there had been very abundant
salvages from all these wrecks. I would of course not be understood as
now speaking of the Russian Ports— But setting them aside it was a very
generally received opinion among the merchants that notwithstanding all
the manifestations of rigour against every thing English which were
resounding throughout Europe, it was not an impossible thing by a
suitable sacrifice of an adequate sum of money, and a judicious
application of it, English property, and English vessels under whatever
disguise might even now obtain admission into many Ports of the North. I
said this was what had been mentioned to me by some of my Countrymen as
the most extraordinary circumstance in its appearance to them; and that
even in the difficulties which they had met with at Archangel, they had
seen other vessels far less entitled to admission than theirs according
to the intention of the Laws obtain that admission with apparent
facility— He smiled and said he supposed there might be some such cases;
but that they must have escaped detection by the apparent regularity of
all their papers— That, I replied was probable; and indeed it was
obvious that those who were deliberately practising fraud and imposition
would be most punctiliously correct to every formality— He said that the
certificates produced for some of the goods in these Cargoes stated them
as coming from Calcutta; and others from Marie Galante— That Calcutta
was altogether an English Possession, and that the certificates might as
well have been from London—that Marie-galante having been formerly a
possession of France, it might be a question whether the goods had been
exported from the island before or since it had been taken by the
English, and it seemed incumbent on the importers here to furnish proof
that it was before— I asked him whether he was certain that the papers
of the former kind certified the goods as from Calcutta; or in general
terms as from India— That he said was another and
a distinct question. There were some from India, but those he had
referred to expressly mentioned Calcutta— I told him I had heard of both
the cases, and had reflected upon them, as certainly they presented
under the existing laws of the Empire questions deserving of very mature
reflection— That the Commerce of the United States with India, even with
Bengal, was so far from being justly considered as English, that it was
a rival trade to that of the English; and carried on with the People of
the Country— That our vessels had been admitted into the Ports of the
British Settlements there by virtue of an Article in our Treaty with
England of 1794; and that we had not since been excluded from them; but
that on a late Negotiation for the renewal of this Treaty, the English
Government had refused to renew that Article, on the urgent
representations of the East-India Company who have the monopoly of the
trade with India in England, and who complained that our competition
there was ruinous to them.— As to the articles from Marie-Galante, the
fair presumption was that their exportation must have been previous to
the occupation of the island by the British, because it might be taken
as a general rule that the moment a West-India Island became a British
Possession, our vessels, and those indeed of all other Nations but
themselves were excluded from them— But said he, did you not just tell
me that you were admitted to their Colonies in India? do they make a
distinction between the East and the West?— I said they did—that in the
same Treaty of 1794 that I had just mentioned, there had originally been
inserted an Article by which our vessels were to be partially and
conditionally admitted to their West-India Islands— But the condition
had appeared so burthensome to our own Government that the Treaty had
been ratified with the exception of that Article; and therefore our
vessels are never admitted to their islands in the West-Indies, except
when to save the inhabitants of the islands themselves from famine,
their Governors allow us to come for three or six months at a time, by
special proclamations— Returning then to the goods from Calcutta, he
said that he thought the importers should at least have produced proof,
that they were not of English produce or manufacture— I told him that if
he would permit me between him and me, in perfect confidence, and with
the assurance that 190that it should operate no
disadvantage to the persons interested, I could tell him that they did
possess the proof, which he thought should be required of them— Why then
did they not produce it?— Because it was contained in a document
perfectly authentic; but which the french Government had thought proper
to declare to be false— Oh! said he, I understand you—it is the
certificate of the French Consuls— Well, they are right not to exhibit
that— Finally he assured me that the business should be decided in a
very few days— Certainly by the beginning of the next week. That every
thing on his part was ready, and the Council would have decided upon it
some days since; but that other business of importance had taken up all
their time. He urged me strongly to detain the Courier two or three days
longer, which at this Season he thought could not be of much
consequence; for so long a journey and voyage— This too he said had been
one occasion of the delays in the decision— Because at any rate the
vessels could not get away for some months, and that a delay of some
days could be no material injury to them. I observed to him that all
delays might seriously affect them in the disposal of their Cargoes, and
in their negotiations for a return Cargo— They could do nothing while
the question about their admission was in suspence— Besides which there
was a Circumstance which it might require some delicacy for me properly
to mention— But my Countrymen upon arriving here applied to merchants to
assist them in transacting their business— The moment a difficulty in
relation to their papers occurred, it was suggested to them, that the
way must be smoothed by a payment of money; which I believe was
sometimes charged when it was not paid— He said he thought persons who
were capable of such a thing ought to be exposed— That in the ordinary
cases at the Custom-House, or before the neutral Commission, there might
be some use of money—there might be some bad men, (mauvais sujets)
there, whom it was impossible to detect; but in this case he could
assure me there was no occasion for money, and could be nothing obtained
by it— The Commission or Custom-house had nothing to do with it— The
Emperor had ordered it for a special decision of the Council, and money
was out of the question— He again repeated the request that I would
detain the Courier two or three days longer; and said that as to the
greater part of the Cargoes they would certainly be admitted; and as to
the rest said he; we will try and find some expedient to let them in
too. I finally consented to detain the Courier untill Tuesday or
Wednesday; though I told him I should have to apologize to Count
Romanzoff, from whom I had already received the Passports and his own
despatches for the Minister of His Majesty in the United States— I left
the Baron after a Conversation of about two hours.— Two Gentlemen of his
friends came in about half an hour before I had finished— But finding us
engaged they pass’d into another room untill I came away— It was about
one O’Clock, when I got home to breakfast— Mr:
Harris was here immediately afterwards— I had agreed to go this day with
him, and dine at Count
Stedingk’s; but wishing to write in the Evening, I thought
best to postpone it. Mr: Harris dined with us.
Mr: Adams also
called on me, and agreed to delay his departure untill next Tuesday or
Wednesday.
John Quincy Adams Digital Diary
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