[French-American Trade]:

$900 · Offered by William Reese Company

SIR, I HOPE THAT MY LAST OF 20th FEB.'Y HAS BEEN SAFE DELIVERED TO YOU, AND WISH THAT THE OPENING OF THE TRADE BETWEEN YOUR COUNTRY AND FRANCE WHICH HAS TAKEN PLACE ABOUT SIX WEEKS AGO, HAVING ... An interesting and rare artifact of the attempt to rebuild French-American trading relations in the wake of the so-called "Quasi-War" between the two nations. The Quasi-War was an undeclared conflict between the United States and France during John Adams' administration in the late 1790s, manifested mostly in naval engagements between the two nations. The war wreaked havoc on American commerce with France, which only began to be rebuilt with the Convention of 1800. The present printed circular was created by "Le Baron fils," the former American consular agent in Dieppe, and was apparently sent to a variety of American merchants, encouraging them to once again send shipments of American goods to that French port.Not much is known of Le Baron fils, though he did correspond with Benjamin Franklin, and he served as the American consular agent at Dieppe for several years. This copy of Le Baron fils' circular was sent to prominent New York merchant and politician Nicholas Low and is dated in manuscript July "24." It is addressed to Low in manuscript on the fourth page, and his name is also written in the upper left corner of the circular. In the printed text Le Baron fils states: "you may see by the inclosed Price Current of our Colonial & American goods [not present here] that our prices

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