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France: Decrees on Trade 1793-1810
Decree of the Executive Directory concerning the navigation of neutral
vessels, loaded with merchandise belonging to the enemies of the republic,
and the judgments on the trials relative to the validity of maritime
prizes.12th Ventose, 5th year, (2nd
March, 1797.)
The Executive Directory, having examined the law of the 9th
May 1793, which, forasmuch as the flag of neutral Powers not being respected
by the enemies of the French republic, and all the laws of nations being
violated to her prejudice, it is no longer permitted to the French people
to fulfil towards these Powers, in general, the wish which it has so
often manifested, and which it will constantly form, for the full and
entire liberty of commerce and of navigation, orders, among other things:
1. That the French vessels of war and privateers may stop and carry
into the ports of the republic neutral vessels which may be founded,
loaded entirely or in part with merchandise belonging to the enemy.
2. That the merchandise belonging to the enemy shall be declared
good prize, and confiscated for the benefit of the captors.
3. That, in all cases, the neutral vessels shall be released the
moment the unloading of the merchandise seized shall have been effected;
that the freight shall be paid at the rates which shall have been
stipulated by the freighters, and a just indemnity shall be allowed
for their detention by the tribunals whose duty it may be to take
cognizance of the validity of the prizes.
4. That those tribunals shall moreover be bound to transmit, three
days after their judgment, a copy of the inventory of the merchandise
to the Minister of the Marine, and another copy to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs.
5.That the present law, applicable to all prizes which have been
made since the declaration of war, shall cease to have its effect
when the enemy Powers shall have declared free and not seizable, though
destined for the ports of the republic, the merchandise loaded on
board neutral vessels, which shall belong to the French government
or its citizens.
Having likewise examined the law of the 27th July, 1793,
which, in maintaining that of the 9th May preceding, her
above recited, orders that it should have its full and entire execution,
and that, in consequence, all other regulations which may be contrary
to it are and remain repealed; a repeal which evidently comprehends
the law of the 1st of the same month of July, by which the
vessels of the United States of America had been excepted from the law
of the 9th May, in conformity to the fifteenth article of
the treaty of the 6th February, 1778.
Having also examined the law of the 13th Nivose, 3rd
year, (3rd January, 1795,) which enjoins on all the agents
of the republic, on all the commandants of the armed force, on the officers,
civil and military, to cause to be respected and observed, in all their
arrangements, the treaties which unite France to the neutral Powers
of the ancient continent and to the United States of America; and adds
that no blow shall be aimed at those treaties, and that all regulations
which may be contrary to them are annulled; considering that this last
law does not derogate from that of the 9th May, 1793, save
only in favor of those neutral Powers whose treaties actually subsisting
with the French republic are contrary its regulations; that, consequently,
it is important for the information, as well of the commandants of the
armed force of the republic, and of the vessels commissioned by it,
as of the tribunals charged with deciding on the validity of the prizes,
to take measures for preventing either that it should be supposed that
treaties existed which never were made, or that treaties concluded for
a limited time which is expired, should be considered as yet requiring
a literal execution; that to this last description belongs particularly
the treaty of amity and commerce concluded the 6th February,
1778, between France and the United States of America; that, in effect,
by the second article of this treaty, France and the United States of
America mutually engage not to grant any particular favor to other nations,
in relation to commerce and navigation, which does not become forthwith
common to the other party; and that it is added by the same article,
that this other party shall enjoy the favor gratuitously, if the grant
is gratuitous, or on making the same compensation if the grant is conditional;
that thus the provisions stipulated in favor of England by the treaty
of amity, commerce and navigation , concluded at London, the 19th
November, 1794, between that Power and the United States of America,
are considered to have been in behalf of the French republic itself,
and, in consequence, modifying, in the points where they differed, the
treaty concluded 6th February, 1778; that it is agreeably
to these provisions that the French Government has declared, by its
decrees of the 14th and 28th Messidor, 4th
year, (2nd and 16th July, 1796,) as it is likewise
forced to do at present, that it will use the just measures of reciprocation
which it had a right to exercise in that respect, in every thing which
has a relation to the circumstances of the war, as also to the political,
commercial, and maritime interests of the French republic; that, consequently,
it is necessary to settle, by reconciling the treaties of the 6th
February, 1778, and 19th November, 1794, every doubt as to
the case where this right of reciprocation ought to be exercised:
Considering that there have been quite lately raised, as to the manner
of stating the proofs of property in the ships and merchandise pretended
to belong to neutrals, doubts and controversies which never would have
taken place if the provisions of the ancient regulations relative to
this business had been better known; that it consequently is of importance
to recite these provisions, and to cause to be executed the fifth article
of the law of the 14th February, 1793, which has maintained
them:
After having heard the Ministers of Justice, of the Marine, and of
the Colonies, decrees what follows:
Art. 1.� The Commissioners of the Executive Directory, near the civil
tribunals of the Departments, shall take care that, on the trials
as to the validity of maritime prizes, no judgment shall be founded
on the seventh article of the law of the 13th Nivose, 3rd
year, (2nd January, 1795,) unless the Minister of Justice
be previously consulted, in conformity to the third article of the
law of the 8th Flor�al, 4th year, (27th
April, 1796,) relative to the treaties in virtue of which some neutrals
might pretend to withdraw themselves, by means of the first of these
laws, from the execution of that of the 9th May, 1793.
Art. 2. The Minister of Justice will consequently examine if the
treaties appealed to still remain in force, or whether they have been
modified since their adoption.� He shall be furnished, for this purpose,
by the Minister of Exterior Relations, with all the information (renseignements)
of which he shall be in want, and he shall refer the same to the Executive
Directory, as is prescribed by the law of the 8th Floreal,
4th year, (27th April, 1796.)
Art. 3.� The Executive Directory reminds all French citizens that
the treaty entered into on the 6th February, 1778, between
France and the United States of America, has been, from the terms
of its second article, in strict right (de plein droit) modified
by that which was entered into in London, on the 19th November,
1794, between the United States of America and England.� In consequence,
agreeably to the seventeenth article of the treaty of London of the
19th November, 1794, all merchandise belonging to an enemy,
or not sufficiently proven to be neutral, loaded under the American
flag, shall be confiscated; but the vessel on board of which it shall
have been found to cause to be accelerated, by all the means in their
power, the judgment on the trials which shall take place, either in
relation to the validity of the capture of the cargo, or in relation
to freights and demurrage, (surestaries).
Art. 2. [sic]� Agreeably to the eighteenth article of the
treaty of London of the 19th November, 1794, there shall
be added the following articles to those declared contraband by the
twenty-fourth article of the treaty of the 6th February,
1778, viz: wood for ship building, pitch, tar, and rosin, copper in
sheets, canvass, hemp, and cordage, and every thing that serves, directly
or indirectly, for the armament and equipment of vessels, except unwrought
iron and fir-plank.� These several articles shall be confiscated whenever
they shall be destined, or when it is attempted to carry them, to
the enemy.
Art. 3. [sic] Agreeably to the twenty-first article of the
treaty of London of the 19th November, 1794, every individual
known to be American, who holds a commission given by the enemies
of France, as also every mariner of that nation making a part of the
crew of private or public ships (navires ou vaisseaux) of the
enemy, shall be, from that act alone, declared a pirate, and treated
as such, without allowing him, in any case, to show that he had been
forced by violence, menaces, or otherwise.
Art. 4.� In conformity to the law of the 14th� February,
1793, the regulations of the 21st October, 1744, and of
the 26th July, 1778, as to the manner of proving the right
of property in neutral ships and merchandise, shall be executed, according
to their form and tenor.
In consequence, every American vessel shall be a good prize which has
not on board a list of the crew, (r�le d'�quipage,) in proper
form, such as is prescribed by the model annexed to the treaty of the
6th February, 1778; a compliance with which is ordered by
the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh articles of the same treaty.
Art. 5. It is enjoined n the Commissioners of the Executive Directory
to call the severity of the tribunals to the fraudulent manoeuvres
of every ship-owner calling himself a neutral American, or other,
on board a vessel in which shall be found, as has frequently been
done during the present war, either maritime papers (papiers de
mer) in blank, though signed and sealed, or paper, in form of
letters, containing the signatures of individuals, in blank; or of
double passports or sea-letters, which indicate different destinations
to the vessel; or double invoices, bills of lading, or any other ship
papers, which assign to the whole or to a part of the same merchandise
different proprietors or different destinations.
Art. 6.� From the regulations of the present decree, that of the
9th Frimaire last, (29th November, 1795,) concerning
the freights and demurrage, is referred to what� relates to demurrage
only.
The present decree shall be inserted in the bulletin of the laws.�
The Ministers of the Marine and of the Colonies, of Justice, and of
Foreign Relations, are charged with its execution, each one in what
concerns him.
Placed on the Napoleon
Series March 2003
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