The Hague, July 30th, 1783.

Sir,

I have been the more particular in my letters to you concerning that extensive manufacture and commerce of refined sugars in this country, because the proximity of all the sugar colonies to us renders a share in it naturally useful and convenient, both to us and them. Fifty thousand hogsheads of raw sugar are annually wrought in this Republic, and exported at a great profit to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and Italy. At Amsterdam I visited a number of respectable merchants, in order to discover their sentiments concerning the communication between us and their Islands and sugar colonies. They all agree, that St Eustatia and Curaçoa are and will be commercial Islands, open and free to all our vessels. St Martin's is divided between the French and Danes and the Dutch, whose share of it does not flourish. The colonies upon the continent, Surinam, Berbice, Demarara, and Essequibo, are at a greater distance from us. But they will be open to our vessels and their cargoes, because they all agree, that those colonies cannot subsist without our horses, lumber and provisions, nor without the sale to us of their molasses. We shall be allowed to take in return molasses, with which some quantities of sugar, coffee, and other produce are always smuggled, as they say. But although nothing has been as yet determined, it is the general opinion, that the produce of the colonies must be brought home in Dutch ships, as heretofore, molasses excepted.

From the Secretary of the West India Company I have obtained a few minutes, in so bad French, that I almost despair of rendering them intelligible. I have attempted it, however, in the following translation, viz.

"In the grant of the West India Company, renewed, or more properly newly erected, in the year 1700, continued in 1730, prolonged afterwards in the year 1760 for two years, and in the year 1762, from the first of January to the thirtyfirst of December, 1791, are found the limits fixed, only for the inhabitants of these Seven United Provinces, under the name of the United Company of these Provinces, upon the coasts and country of Africa, computing from the Tropic of Cancer to the southern latitude of the Equinoctial Line, with all the Islands in this district, situated upon the said coast, and particularly the Islands of St Thomas, Annebon, Islands of Principia and Fernando Po, as also the places of Essequibo and Baumenora, situated upon the Continental Coasts of America, as also the Islands of Curaçoa, Amaba and Buen Aire. All the other limits of the ancient grant being open for the commerce of all the inhabitants of the Republic, without exception, upon condition, however, that if the Company, oriental and occidental, should judge proper to navigate to the Islands situated between the coasts of Africa and America, beginning at the Ascension and further south, or any of them, and should occupy it before any other should have a private grant, with exclusion of all others for so long time as it shall occupy its places, and in case they should desist, these places should return under the second class, open for the navigation of every individual of the Republic, paying an acknowledgment, &c. That the said particulars, trading in the said districts, shall be obliged to acknowledge the Western Company, and to pay them for the right of convoy, and consequently in form of acknowledgment, viz. for the productions and merchandises for the West Indies, two per cent, and returning from thence into these Provinces, two per cent more for the commodities in return. And further, the ships navigating to places farther distant in America, contained in the ancient grant, both in going and returning, should pay five florins per last, or more or less as their High Mightinesses shall judge proper to determine hereafter; observing, nevertheless, that these five florins per last shall not be demanded of ships navigating to the Caribee Islands, which shall pay the ordinary duty for convoy to the Colleges of the Admiralty from which they sail, and the said private navigators shall be held, moreover, for the satisfaction of the Western Company, to give sufficient caution, that they will not navigate, nor cause to be navigated, the places contained in the first class, ceded to the Company with exclusion of all others. And if any one is found to act contrary, and to navigate to any place situated in the prescribed limits, and granted to the Company, his ship and cargo shall be confiscated and attacked in force, by the ships belonging to the said Company; and if such ships and merchandises or commodities, shall be sold or entered into any other country or foreign port, the owner and his accomplice shall be liable to execution, for the value of the said ships and merchandises or commodities.

"The Company has also the right to require an acknowledgment of all those who shall navigate, import or export any merchandise to or from places belonging to the said Company, notwithstanding they may be subject, and may belong to the domination of other Kings or Princes, situated within the limits stipulated in the grant; and especially of every foreign vessel, bringing any commodities or merchandises from the West Indies, or the limits stipulated in the grants into the Provinces, whether upon its own account, or freight, or on commission, whether such foreign vessel shall come directly from the West Indies; and the limits of the grant, into the Provinces, or whether she shall have carried her cargo to other countries or kingdoms, for what reason soever this may be done. Excepting only in case the merchandises of the proprietor should by negotiation be changed in nature, and that the duty of this country fixed to the place should be paid, which any one alleging shall be obliged to prove sufficiently, according to the amount of the merchandises. Declaring, moreover, for the further elucidation of the said grant, that under the name of the New Low Countries, in consequence of the three per cent, which the Company has a right to require for the merchandises sent there, or brought from thence, is understood that part of North America, which extends itself west and south of the northern part of Newfoundland as far as the Cape of Florida, and for what regards the payment of the two per cent under the name of the West Indies, to be computed from the Cape of Florida, to the river Oronoco, and the Islands of Curaçoa. For what concerns the other places of America, contained in the most ancient and precedent grant, in regard to the five florins per last, upon the vessels there navigating, shall be understood all the Carribee Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Porto Rico, as also all the other coasts and countries, computing from the river Oronoco aforesaid, by the straits of Magellan, Le Maire, or other passages or straits, situated under these, as far as the strait of Aryan, both upon the sea of the north, and the Islands situated upon the other side, and between them, as also the southern countries, situated between the two meridians, touching at the east the Cape of Good Hope, and in the west the eastern part of New Guinea, inclusively."

If this paper is not very clear to Congress, it is not more so to me, and perhaps to the Dutch themselves. There is a dispute likely to arise between the West India Company and the College of the Admiralty about it, which will be explained further as it proceeds, by whatever Minister you may send here.

Upon the whole matter of our communications with the European establishments in the West Indies; we shall carry freely our commodities to the French and Dutch, excepting, perhaps, flour to the French, which however will be carried, I suppose, to St Lucia and Port Royal, as well as St Eustatia and Curaçoa, St Thomas's and St Martin's, and there sold to any nation that will purchase it. Molasses and rum we shall bring away freely from the French and Dutch. And if we can obtain of them the liberty of carrying sugars, coffee, &c. from their possessions in the West Indies to their ports in Europe, giving bonds with surety to land them in such ports, it will be as much as we can expect. If they will allow raw sugars, coffee, cotton, &c. to be sent freely to the United States in their own vessels, this would be an advantage for us, though not so considerable as to bring them in ours. What the English will do is uncertain. We are not to take the late proclamation for a law of the Medes. The Ministry who made it are not firm in their seats. If Shelburne comes in we shall do better; and, to be prepared to take advantage of so probable an event, you should have a Minister ready. We have one infallible resource, if we can unite in laying a duty or a prohibition. But this measure must not be hastily taken, because by negotiation, I apprehend, the point may be carried in England. To this end it may be proper to instruct your Minister, and authorise him to say, that the States will find themselves obliged, against their inclination, to lay a prohibition or heavy duty upon all West India goods imported, and all American productions exported in British bottoms, if the trade is not regulated by treaty upon an equitable footing.

I have the honor to be, &c.

JOHN ADAMS.