The Virginia Gazette

Jan. 14. It is reported that MM. Rotterm and Bouret have been deputed by the farmers general of France to negotiate a commercial treaty with Messrs. Franklin and Deane, the Congress agents in Paris. This treaty, which is also reported to have been ratified by the French King, stipulates "That the state of Virginia shall annually furnish the farmers general of France with 20,000 hogsheads of tobacco, at the rate of sixpence sterling per pound. Until these 20,000 hogsheads are delivered at the ports of France, the state of Virginia is not to furnish any other European power with a single hogshead of tobacco. This treaty is concluded for seven, fourteen, or twenty one years, with the optional power of the contracting parties to annul or continue it at the expiration of seven or fourteen years. The Congress agents have agreed, on the part of America, that goods shall be taken in exchange for the tobacco to be sent from Virginia to France; and the said goods are to be exported to America in French bottoms, which are to bring back the tobacco agreed for by the treaty. The subscribers being witness to the execution of this treaty are, Messrs. De Beaumarchais and Rey De Chaumont."