This is 5
1/2 months provision or two fifths of the annual consumption. To
furnish for the whole year, would require 40 ships of the same size,
in years as fortunate as the present, and 85 communibus annis, 44
tons, or one sixth of the burthen, being as high an average as should
be counted on, one year with another: and the number must be
increased with the increasing consumption. France then is evidently
not yet in a condition to supply her own wants. It is said indeed
she has a large stock on hand unsold occasioned by the English
competition. 33,000 quintals, including this year's produce, are
spoken of. This is between 6. and 7. months provision: and
supposing, by the time this is exhausted, that the next year's supply
comes in, that will enable her to go on 5. or 6. months longer; say a
twelvemonth in the whole. But, at the end of the twelvemonth, what
is to be done? The Manufactures depending on this article cannot
maintain their competition against those of other countries, if
deprived of their equal means. When the alternative then shall be
presented of letting them drop, or opening the ports to foreign whale
oil, it is presumable the latter will be adopted, as the lesser evil.
But it will be too late for America: her fishery, annihilated during
the late war, only began to raise its head on the prospect of market
held out by this country.
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