[MANUSCRIPT] Louis XV forbids his subjects to conduct commerce in the South Seas.

A$1,250 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books · No longer available

Manuscript letter, single folio sheet, dated 16 February 1716, signed Louis (in the hand of Louis XV s secretary), countersigned by Louis Phélypeaux, Marquis de La Vrillière, Secretary of State, addressed to Cardin Le Bret, member of the parliament of Provence and nephew of the regent, the Duc d Orléans, stating that a royal edict has been sent to the parliament of Provence which explains the circumstances in which merchants of my Kingdom must obtain passports from me, to which edict I append a declaration forbidding any of my subjects to conduct commerce in the South Seas ; the verso with address of Le Bret; the document is complete, legible and remarkably fresh, with original folds. In France, the period 1715-1723 is known as the Régence , during which time Philippe, Duc d Orléans, was in charge of the country s affairs owing to the fact that Louis XV was still a minor. In 1716, when this letter was written, the War of the Spanish Succession had only recently ended, and a member of the French House of Bourbon (Philip V) was now on the Spanish throne. The royal edict alluded to in the present letter, ostensibly forbidding French subjects to conduct trade in the Pacific, was typical of French diplomacy towards Spain in the early part of the eighteenth century. It was designed to allay Spanish fears that its monopoly of the rich resources along the western seabord of the Americas namely the silver mines of Mexico and Peru was under threat from the French, but in reality the si

• Binding: Hardcover

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