Mémoire sur les relations commerciales des États-Unis avec l'Angleterre
Contributions
- Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
- author
- François Buisson
- publisher
Related resources
Notes
After the fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, Talleyrand mobilised his friends (most notably Germaine de Staël) to lobby first the National Convention and then the Directory for his return to France from his exile in America. His name was eventually struck off the émigré list and he was allowed to return in September 1796.
These Addresses on the value of commercial relations with England, and on colonization as the best way of renewing the nation, were given to the recently formed Institut National des Sciences et Arts to which he had been elected on 14 December 1795. They were intended to gain the attention of the government and he was subsequently appointed Foreign Minister by the Directory in July 1797.
The first lecture is a report on the US, which he found, paradoxically, enjoying good relations with her former colonial power in spite of the memories of the long War of Independence and the humiliation of still being economically dependent on Britain. It was based on a long letter he had written to the Marquess of Lansdowne (formerly Earl Shelburne) from his American exile, and concluded that American independence had actually been economically beneficial for Britain.
The second lecture proposed new colonial ventures for France with the hope of relieving those living in poverty. In it Talleyrand argued that a combination of domination, monopolies, good will and justice would contribute to the nation's future prosperity. He praised the duc de Choiseul's political foresight – he had been France's foreign minister during the Seven Years War – and suggested Egypt might be a suitable French colony.