SAINT-DOMINGUE. P.S. par une centaine de négociants, capitaines et marchands, Le Cap 29 avril 1785; 4pages in-fol. (tab and small cracks repaired). Petition addressed to "Nosseigneurs les Général & Intendant des Colonies Françaises de l'Amérique sous le Vent", signed by ship captains and commissioners representing French trading houses, against the interpretation given to a Conseil d'Etat ruling by the Director of the King's Office who, "misapplying to Spaniards the general denomination of Foreigners carried by this ruling, dares to extend to them the formalities and collection of duties it orders. Such an extension [...] openly contradicts the political system of our Kings", who until now had never excluded Spaniards from trading in the colonies. For "the Spaniards supply the Colony with all its cash; it is from them that it obtains the animals necessary for the cultivation of its lands & the subsistence of its inhabitants. And what do they take in exchange? Dry goods from France. The colony would thus find itself destitute, "and the foreign colonies would be enriched by its losses. What a distressing picture!"... The signatories therefore request that the Director of the King's Office be forbidden "to include Spaniards in the term 'foreigners'"...