JEFFERSON & RAYNAL (PART IV)

"... to vindicate the honor of the human race..." — Thomas Jefferson

AM | @HDI1780

- The Trade of Marseilles. Dated from Marseille (9 May 1787), Thomas Jefferson receives a letter from Stephen Cathalan, Jr. (*). Here's the interesting part:

SIR Marseilles the 9th. May 1787. I hope this Letter will meet your Excellency at Cette [Sète], and on that account I direct it to M. Meinadier. I dare say, you have been pleased in Seing the famous Fontain of Vaucluse, as famous, by the lampid waters Spliting with a great noise against the rocks, as it is by the Loves of Petrarch and Laura [...] I remit you here inclosed the Copy, of the general Idea of the trade of Marseilles, by abbe raynal. I will Send one to Thos. Barclay Esqr. as Soon as I will have of his Letters, till now I have received none.

Jefferson's correspondent must be refering to the text of the second prize sponsored, but not written, by Raynal, at Académie de Marseille under the title: "Les causes de l'accroissement du commerce de Marseille et les moyens d'en assurer la prospérité". (The first prize, dated from 1786, was on criminal procedure). There is very little information on this issue. According to Gilles Bancarel, "Nous ne connaissons pas, faute d'informations, l'issue qui fut réservée à ce second prix" (Raynal ou le devoir de vérité. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004, p. 377).

(*) Julian P. Boyd (ed.) The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 11. Princeton University Press, 1955, p. 357.
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- Too good to be true? The story about the dinner party in Passy, in which Raynal and his French colleagues are shown to be much shorter than Franklin and his American friends (thus refuting the degeneracy theory), is probably too good to be true. On 15 October 1787, William Carmichael sends Jefferson a letter containing a (slightly) less memorable account (*). Note that Raynal is not even counted among those attending:

I have received with great pleasure your Notes on Virginia and as yet have given them but a Cursory perusal. I think you have victoriously conbatted Buffon, Monsr. de P. and the Abbé Raynal. I do not know whether Dr. Franklin ever mentioned to you what passed at a Dinner at Paris at which I was present, on that contested point. At Table some one of the Company asked the Doctor what were his Sentiments on the remarks made by the Author of Recherches sur l'Amerique. We were five Americans at Table.

The Venerable Doctor regarded the Company and then desired the Gentlemen who put the question to remark and to Judge whether the human race had degenerated by being transplanted to another section of the Globe. In fact there was not one American present who could not have tost out of the Windows any one or perhaps two of the rest of the Company, if this Effort depended merely on muscular force. We heard nothing more of Mr. P's work and after yours I think we shall hear nothing more of the opinions of Monsr. Buffon or the Abbé Raynal on this subject.

(*) Julian P. Boyd (ed). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 12. Princeton University Press, 1955, pp. 240-241.
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- The Report on Fisheries. For all his personal dislike of Raynal, the fact remains that Jefferson always cherised his Histoire des deux Indes volumes, not least because of their value as a source of statistical information. Thus, in his 1791 "Report on American Fisheries by the Secretary of State", Jefferson quotes the abbé (*). I don't have that text with me now, but it is worth noting that Jefferson's 1791 reports "incited Congressional emotions against British behaviour" [see]. This seems to correspond with the general tone of HDI 1780.XVI, where Raynal despairs about the power of the British and their ambition to establish themselves as the dominant force in North American fisheries.

(*) Julian P. Boyd (ed.) The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 19. Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 210.
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2013 ANNÉE RAYNAL

AM | @HDI1780

The Société d'Etude Guillaume-Thomas Raynal announces the 2013 ANNÉE RAYNAL to commemorate "le tricentenaire de la naissance du philosophe Guillaume-Thomas Raynal. Né à Lapanouse de Séverac 12 avril 1713, décédé à Chaillot le 6 mars 1796". The Société is chaired by Gilles Bancarel, author of the most up-to-date Raynal biography: Raynal ou le devoir de vérité (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004) (*).

From the short Raynal biography publised on the website:

C'est en 1770 que parait à l'étranger et sous l'anonymat l' Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes. Introduit en France en 1772, le livre qui conteste le pouvoir royal et le pouvoir religieux fait scandale. Il est aussitôt interdit par un arrêt du Conseil. En 1774, parait une nouvelle édition plus virulente dans laquelle Diderot et Raynal s'enflamment, et où apparaît le portrait de l'auteur ; elle est aussi tôt mise à l'Index par le clergé.

Une troisième édition encore plus violente est publiée en 1780. Le Parlement de Paris condamne l'ouvrage à être lacéré et brûlé par la main du bourreau en place publique [...] Après plus de 200 ans d’oubli, près de 50 années de travaux scientifiques sont parvenus à replacer le philosophe Raynal au cœur de l’histoire contemporaine, comme il était naguère au cœur de l’Europe des Lumières et présent par son livre sur tous les continents.

Il est devenu aujourd'hui fondamental de redonner sa place à une œuvre phare du patrimoine culturel français, témoignage du génie des Lumières et véhicule, hier comme aujourd’hui, des valeurs humanistes et républicaines. Les manifestations du Tricentenaire sont destinées à dévoiler la portée universelle et le rôle planétaire de Raynal dans la conquête des Droits de l'homme et du citoyen et sa place capitale en tant que précurseur de la lutte contre l'esclavage et promoteur de l’idéal républicain.

(*) In 2011, Mr. Bancarel edited the volume Raynal et ses réseaux, also published by Honoré Champion [see].
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TURGOT
"...un genre de vexation aussi odieux..." — Turgot

AM | @HDI1780

Les écrits de Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot sur le crédit et les taux d'intérêt constituent une source importante de l'Histoire des deux Indes. Il s'agit bien entendu d'un très vaste sujet, sur lequel je reviendrai souvent. Dupont de Nemours, l'éditeur de Turgot, affirme que le Mémoire sur les prêts d'argent fut imprimé au moins deux fois en 1769 (*). On y retrouve l'idée —formulée dans HDI 1780, iii.1, p. 264— selon laquelle l'argent est une marchandise comme les autres: "Il est nécessaire que l'argent y soit considéré comme une véritable marchandise dont le prix dépend de la convention, et varie comme celui de toutes les autres marchandises, à raison du rapport de l'offre à la demande" (p. 290).

Dans son Mémoire, Turgot se déchaîne contre la protection que les tribunaux d'Angoulême fournissent aux "fripons" qui ne respectent pas leurs engagements, ce qu'il trouve "aussi scandaleux que funeste au commerce". Or, c'est exactement le sujet abordé par Raynal et Diderot à propos du crédit dans les colonies françaises (HDI 1780, xiii.54):

L'autorisation donnée à la mauvaise foi des emprunteurs [...] La loi ne protégera que ceux qui sont indignes de sa protection. (Turgot, pp. 275, 285).

...le ministère encourage la mauvaise foi en lui offrant un asyle sous la protection de la loi, car si la loi ne poursuit pas elle protège... (HDI 1780, xiii.54).
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...l'espèce de jurisprudence qu'on vouloit établir... (Turgot, p. 263)

Ces calamités [...] ont donné naissance à une jurisprudence favorable aux débiteurs... (HDI 1780, xiii.54).
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(*) Œuvres de Mr. Turgot, Tome V. Paris: Delange, 1808.
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JEFFERSON & RAYNAL (PART III)

"...nous pouvons opposer à l'Abbé Raynal un Washington..." — Jefferson

AM | @HDI1780

While working in Amsterdam on my book on Mariano Moreno, back in 2008, I made the decision to leave the "Jefferson and Moreno" chapter to the last minute (*). I was brimming with confidence; after all, I had read most of the Notes on the State of Virginia (the book quoted by Moreno in Gazeta de Buenos-Ayres, 28 November 1810), and the library of the Universiteit van Amsterdam had plenty of resources. But as soon as I started with the chapter, I realized that things were more complex than I had anticipated.

The passage quoted by Moreno —on the 'federal' structure of Indian tribes— was absent from the main part of the Notes. And the title —Observaciones sobre la Virginia— seemed a bit awkward as well. Google Images came to my rescue. Thanks to this picture, I realized that Moreno had read the French translation by André Morellet; the title —Observations sur la Virginie— matched Moreno's own Spanish translation. For once, it was Google Images, rather than Google Books, that provided the answers I was looking for. Still, the book was not digitized.

Then I came across this excellent article by Gordon S. Barker: "Unraveling the Strange History of Jefferson's Observations sur la Virginie", The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2004. By then, all doubts had been cleared. Thinking that the original title was too humble, Morellet replaced it with Observations. And just has he had done ten years before with Beccaria's Dei delitti e delle pene, he took the book apart. (Interestingly enough, he has very little to say about the episode in his Mémoires: I, xv, p. 295).

OBSERVATIONS

SUR

LA VIRGINIE

PAR M. J***

TRADUITES DE L'ANGLOIS

A PARIS

Chez BARROIS, l'aîné, Libraire, rue du

Hurepoix, près le pont Saint-Michel
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1786

Moreno's translation seemed to make perfect sense by now. But it was only in Paris, at Bibliothèque Nationale, that I was able to read a microfilm version of Observations sur la Virginie. There are still many twists in this story, some of which are relevant in terms of my research work on Mariano Moreno (an avid reader of Histoire des deux Indes). The good news is that Google Books has now digitized Morellet's translation.

The date is incorrect: the book was published in early 1787. You can find the part on Raynal and the degeneracy controversy in pages 161 to 165. Because the footnotes have been taken back into the main body ot the text, the reference to the 1780 edition of Histoire des deux Indes becomes more visible in translation. Thus, thanks to Morellet's tricks, Jefferson's criticism of Raynal is rendered in (slightly) less harsh terms.

(*) Agustín Mackinlay. El Enigma de Mariano Moreno. Fundación y Equilibrio de Poderes en la Era de las Revoluciones. Buenos Aires: R & C, 2009.
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JEFFERSON & RAYNAL (PART II)

"It is civilization alone which replaces women in the enjoyment of their natural equality" — Jefferson

AM | @HDI1780

- Women in Indian tribes. Although more work needs to be done, it is pretty clear in my mind that Jefferson took his inspiration from Histoire des deux Indes in his treatment of the condition of women in North American Indian tribes. Raynal: "Les femmes etoient sous l'oppression dans l'Orenoque, comme dans toutes les régions barbares" (HDI 1780, vii.17, p. 181). Jefferson: "The women are submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case with every barbarous people" (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII).
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- The earth belongs exclusively to the living (*). Here's another well-known tirade by Jefferson, almost certainly derived from Diderot's chapter 42 of Book XVIII in Histoire des deux Indes [see]. In his letter IV to Le politique hollandais (22 January 1782), Adams quotes in French the key passage from Révolution de l'Amérique: "Qu'il n'est nulle forme de gouvernement, dont la prérogative soit d' être immutable. Nulle autorité politique qui créée hier ou il y a mille ans, ne puisse être abrogée dans dix ans ou demain. Nulle puissance, si respectable, si sacrée qu'elle soit, autorisée à regarder l'État comme sa propriété" (pp. 42-43).

(*) Jefferson to Monroe, Paris, September 6, 1789 [see].
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- Letter to Chastellux. On 7 June 1785, Jefferson complains about Raynal in a letter to Marquis de Chastellux. Whereas John Adams had chosen to ignore the degeneracy controversy, Jefferson was deeply involved in (sometimes costly) refutations of Buffon, de Pauw and Raynal [VIDEO]. In particular, the author of Histoire des deux Indes draws his ire: "The Abbé Raynal alone has taken that step [i.e. extending degeneracy to Europeans transplanted to America]".
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- Article "États-Unis". In 1786, Jean Nicolas Démeunier published the long "États-Unis" article in Volume II of the Encyclopédie méthodique [see: pp. 345-433]. Jefferson did provide some information. Clearly, he was anxious to distance himself from Démeunier's text,"tainted" as it was from Histoire des deux Indes. Here's Jefferson in two August 1786 letters (*):

To Charles Gysbert, August 25: With respect to the article "Etats Unis" of the Encyclopedie now inclosed, I am far from making myself responsible for the whole of the article. The two first sections are taken chiefly from the Abbé Raynal & they are therefore wrong exactly in that proportion. To John Adams, August 27: I include you the article "Etats Unis" of one of the volumes of the Encyclopedie, lately published [...] He [Démeunier] has left a great deal of Abbé Raynal, that is to say a great deal of falsehood, and he has stated other things on bad information.

Jefferson's personal animosity notwithstanding, these documents show the extent of the damage created by the degeneracy controversy in terms of Raynal's reputation and the standing of Histoire des deux Indes in the New World.

(*) The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5, pp. 161 and 171.

[PART III TOMORROW...]
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RAYNAL AND JEFFERSON (I)
"L'enthousiasme seul auroit pu surmonter ces difficultés" — Raynal

AM | @HDI1780

- They never met. To the best of my knowledge, Raynal and Jefferson never met. When the American envoy arrived in Paris in early August 1784, Guillaume-Thomas Raynal had just returned to France after his exile. But the author of Histoire des deux Indes was barred from sejourning in the French capital. By the time Raynal returned to Paris to present his famous Adresse à l'Assemblée Nationale (may 1791), Jefferson was already working in New York City as the first US Secretary of State. [Gilles Bancarel. Raynal ou le devoir de vérité. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2004; Jefferson in Paris: 1784-1789].

- Jefferson (cordially) detested Raynal. There is little doubt in my mind that Jefferson had a profound dislike for abbé Raynal. The reason may well be the fact that Histoire des deux Indes does not count him among the founders of the new republic: besides "leur chef, Wasington" (sic), Diderot cites "Hancok (sic), Franklin, les deux Adams" as "les plus grands acteurs dans cette scène intéressante". This is all the more remarkable since Diderot does provide a partial translation of the Declaration of Independence, which he labels the Revolution's "manifeste". [HDI 1780, xviii].

- The degeneracy controversy I. In Query VI of his Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson slams the notion that America and all things American tend to degenerate on account of the prevailing humidity in the New World. His specific target is Raynal, who ventured to apply the theory of degeneracy to descendants of Europeans themselves (*). Note that Jefferson cites Volume 7 of the 1774 Maastricht edition of HDI. In other words: he is deliberately omitting the 1780 edition which, thanks to Franklin's persuasion, proved much more benign in terms America's supposed degeneracy.

- The degeneracy controversy II. Only in footnote 15 does Jefferson acknowledge the 1780 edition of Histoire des deux Indes. Still, the tone is pretty harsh: "In a later edition of the Abbé Raynal's work, he has withdrawn his censure from that part of the new world inhabited by the Federo-Americans; but has left it still on the other parts. North America has always been more accessible to strangers than South. If he was mistaken then as to the former, he may be so as to the latter." Here's the main part on Raynal:

So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side the Atlantic. Its application to the race of whites transplanted from Europe, remained for the Abbe Raynal. "On doit etre etonne (he says) que Amerique n'ait pas encore produit un bon poete, un habile mathematicien, un homme de genie dans un seul art, ou seule science." (7. Hist. Philos. p. 92, ed. Maestricht, 1774.) "America has not yet produced one good poet." When we shall have existed as a people as long as the Greeks did before they produced a Homer, the Romans a Virgil, the French a Racine and Voltaire, the English a Shakespeare and Milton, should this reproach be still true, we will inquire from what unfriendly causes it has proceeded, that the other countries of Europe and quarters of the earth shall not have inscribed any name in the roll of poets. But neither has America produced "one able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science."

In war we have produced a Washington, whose memory will be adored while liberty shall have votaries, whose name shall triumph over time, and will in future ages assume its just station among the most celebrated worthies of the world, when that wretched philosophy shall be forgotten which would have arranged him among the degeneracies of nature. In physics we have produced a Franklin, than whom no one of the present age has made more important discoveries, nor has enriched philosophy with more, or more ingenious solutions of the phenomena of nature. We have supposed Mr. Rittenhouse second to no astronomer living; that in genius he must be the first, because he is self-taught. As an artist he has exhibited as great a proof of mechanical genius as the world has ever produced. He has not indeed made a world; but he has by imitation approached nearer its Maker than any man who has lived from the creation to this day.

As in philosophy and war, so in government, in oratory, in painting, in the plastic art, we might show that America, though but a child of yesterday, has already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well as of the nobler kinds, which arouse the best feelings of man, which call him into action, which substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happiness, as of the subordinate, which serve to amuse him only. We therefore suppose, that this reproach is as unjust as it is unkind: and that, of the geniuses which adorn the present age, America contributes its full share. For comparing it with those countries where genius is most cultivated, where are the most excellent models for art, and scaffoldings for the attainment of science, as France and England for instance, we calculate thus: The United States contains three millions of inhabitants; France twenty millions; and the British islands ten.

We produce a Washington, a Franklin, a Rittenhouse. France than should have half a dozen in each of these lines, and great Britain half that number, equally eminent. It may be true that France has; we are but just becoming acquainted with her, and our acquaintance so far gives us high ideas of the genius of her inhabitants. It would be injuring too many of them to name particularly a Voltaire, a Buffon, the constellation of Encyclopedists, the Abbe Raynal himself, We therefore have reason to believe she can produce her full quota of genius. The present war having so long cut off all communication with Great Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she wages war, is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization.

The sun of her glory is fast descending to the horizon. Her philosophy has crossed the Channel, her freedom the Atlantic, and herself seems passing to that awful dissolution whose issue is not given human foresight to scan....

(*)  See my take on the degeneracy controversy in chapter 9 of El 'best-seller' que cambió el mundo.
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SÛRETÉ & SÉCURITÉ DANS L'HISTOIRE DES DEUX INDES
"Dans une région où le numéraire manque, il faut vendre à crédit" — Raynal 

AM | @HDI1780

Pour bien comprendre l'économie politique de l'Histoire des deux Indes, rien de mieux qu'un long séjour dans les pays émergents. C'est là qu'on saisit mieux l'importance de la sécurité personnelle. Lorsqu'on peut être arrêté sans le moindre élément d'enquête sérieux (Chine); lorsqu'il existe "un risque accru d’infractions violentes et d’enlèvement" (Venezuela); lorsqu'un ministre-visir décrète du jour au lendemain la confiscation de vos épargnes (Argentine); dans tous ces cas, le sens du mot despotisme devient très clair.

C'est précisement ce qui fait l'intérêt de l'économie politique au XVIIIe siècle. De Montesquieu à Necker, en passant par Galiani et Adam Smith, l'économie politique est organiquement liée à l'évolution des lois et des institutions. (Elle ne le sera plus au siècle suivant). Mis à part l'Angleterre et la Hollande, le monde est gouverné de façon plus ou moins "despotique"; ceci explique l'importance décernée par les économistes à la sécurité personnelle, sans laquelle il n'y a ni crédit, ni commerce, ni innovation. Voici quelques exemples tirés de l'Histoire des deux Indes:

- La sécurité avec laquelle on est toujours assez riche; la sécurité sans laquelle on ne l’est jamais assez... & c’est sincérement que vous ne vous croyez pas en sûreté. (HDI 1780, xii.14).

- Alors le corps législatif fit une loi qui assuroit à tous les émigrans François l’avantage de jouir avec sécurité de toutes les richesses qu’ils porteroient à la Dominique. (HDI 1780, xiv.40).

- "Tu avois des magistrats honnêtes & vertueux qui veilloient le jour à ton bonheur, la nuit à ta sécurité, pendant tous le cours de l’année à tes intérêts..." (HDI 1780, xvi.11).

- C’est sur cette perspective, que les Pensilvains ont fondé leur sécurité future. (HDI 1780, xviii.6).

- Rien ne contribue à cette union, comme une certaine égalité d’aisance; comme la sécurité qui naît de la propriété... (HDI 1780, xviii.24).

- Que la misanthropie exagère, tant qu’il lui plaira, les vices de nos cités, elle ne réussira pas à nous dégoûter de ces conventions expresses ou tacites, & de ces vertus artificielles qui font la sécurité & le charme de nos sociétés. (HDI 1780, xix.10).

- Il faut qu’elle [la contribution] soit permanente & toujours égale, sans quoi plus de sécurité pour vos personnes, vos propriétés, votre industrie. (HDI 1780, xix.10).

- La nation Angloise qui, mettant sa sûreté, sa puissance & sa gloire dans le commerce, avoit souffert impatiemment de voir réprimer ses usurpations... (HDI 1780, x.13).

- Ceux qui attaquent la propriété; vous ne laissez pas à votre esclave celle de sa personne: ceux qui détruisent la sûreté; vous pouvez l’immoler à vos caprices: ceux qui font frémir la pudeur...(HDI 1780, xi.24).

- ...faites prospérer la terre sur laquelle vous marchez, vous vivez; ou si l’autre hémisphère vous offre plus de puissance, de force, de sûreté, de bonheur, allez vous y établir... (HDI 1780, xiii.1).

- La législation y réussira, en faisant dans la forme des milices, tous les changemens qui peuvent se concilier avec la police & la sûreté qu’elles doivent avoir pour objet. (HDI 1780, xiii.52).
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THREE SHORT LINKS
"Il faut des passions aux hommes" — Helvétius

AM | @HDI1780

 Jean-Baptiste Demanet. Jean-Baptiste Demanet's Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique françoise (1767), says Ann Thomson, is a source used by Raynal in book XI of HDI [see]. I have found a link to the second volume. "L'Africain paroît être une machine", writes Demanet. In book XIII of HDI 1770, in his discussion of credit markets, Raynal depicts African slaves as "des machines". The tone changes dramatically in 1780, where such references are completely absent (at least in book XIII).

[Abbé Demanet. Nouvelle histoire de l'Afrique françoise, Tome II. Paris: Duchesne, Lacombe, 1767].

* * *

Tom Paine. Je poursuis mes recherches sur la lettre de "Un Ciudadano" (1, 2, 3). Tout porte à croire que Gregorio Funes (ou Mariano Moreno) utilise la "Lettre adressée à l’abbé Raynal sur les affaires de l’Amérique Septentrionale" de Tom Paine. Encore une pièce à ajouter au dossier de la Révolution d'Amérique et son importance par rapport aux évènements du Río de la Plata en 1810...

[Recueil de diverses pièces, servant de supplément à l’Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes par Guillaume-Thomas Raynal. Neuchatel: 1784].

* * *

Er sagt den Köningen die Wahrheit. Il y a tout juste deux-cent trente ans, Raynal rencontrait Goethe à Weimar. C'est de là que le poète allemand écrivait à Karl Ludwig von Knebel à propos de Raynal, le 5 mai 1782: "Er sagt den Königen die Wahrheit und schmeichelt den Frauen". "Il dit la vérité aux rois": sans doute avait-il en tête les textes que l'Histoire des deux Indes dédie à Frédéric II, à Louis XVI et à Catherine II, textes rédigés par ... Diderot.

[Hans Joachim Schmitt: "Neues zum Deutschlandaufenthalt des Abbé Raynal im Jahre 1782", Zeitschrift des Vereins für hessische Geschichte (ZHG) Band 106, 2001, S. 51-58 (pdf)].
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