From the first report of this board, we gain some information of the state of French commerce at this time; according to it, the French employed in their West India and Guinea trade only 100 vessels, whereas the English employed 500.  The principal articles they drew from these islands were sugar, indigo, cotton, cocoa, ginger, &c.  The exclusive trades formed in 1661, when France was little versed in commerce and navigation, are deprecated:  the chief of them were, that granted to Marseilles for the sole trade to the Levant;—­the East India Company;—­the prohibiting foreign raw silk to be carried to Paris, Nismes, Tours, &c., till it had passed through Lyons;—­the Canada and Guinea Companies, besides various farms or monopolies of certain merchandize in trade:  the principal of these last was lead from England, with which, made into shot, the persons who had the monopoly supplied not only France, but, through France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Levant, and the French West Indies.

The report contains some information respecting the comparative commerce of France, and the other nations of Europe.  The Spaniards, it is observed, though they possess within their own country wool, silk, oil, wine, &c., and are in no want of good ports, both on the ocean and Mediterranean, nevertheless neglect all these advantages.  Hence it happens that the raw silk of Valencia, Murcia, and Grenada, is exported to France:  the wool of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Leon, to England, Holland, France, and Italy; and these raw articles, when manufactured, are sent back to Spain, and exchanged for the gold and silver of the American mines.  France also supplies Peru and Mexico, through Spain, receiving in return, cochineal, indigo, hides, &c., besides a balance of eighteen or twenty million of livres, and by the flotas, seven or eight million more.  The report adds, on this head, that latterly the English and Dutch have interfered with some branches of this trade with Spain; and it also complains that the former nation carry on the Levant trade to much more advantage than the French, their woollen cloths being better and cheaper.  The English also carry to the Levant, lead, pewter, copperas, and logwood, together with a great deal of pepper;—­with these, and the money received on the coasts of Portugal, Spain and Italy, for the dry fish and sugar they sell there on their outward voyage, they purchase their homeward cargoes.  This superiority of England over France in the Levant trade, is ascribed in the report to the monopoly enjoyed by Marseilles.

The report, in relation to the commerce of France with the northern nations of Europe, observes, that it appears from the custom books, that the Dutch had possession of almost the whole of it.  The Dutch also are accused of having, in a great measure, made themselves masters of the inland trade of France.  In order to secure to this latter country the direct trade with the north of Europe, certain plans are