Rapport sur la Commission établie à Tabago, fait au nom des Comités de Commerce et des Colonies Réunis. Imprimé par Ordre de l’Assemblée Nationale.
[Paris]: [Imprimerie Nationale], [1791]. First edition. Bound in later hardpaper boards covered with pastepaper, spine with red gilt leather title vignette. 18 [2 (blank)] p. Untrimmed. Paper tanned. Otherwise in very good condition.
Official report on the 1786 “Commission de Tabago,” an extraordinary tribunal established to examine debts between British creditors and settlers after the French conquest of the island.
First edition of the National Assembly’s official report on the controversial “Commission de Tabago,” an extraordinary tribunal established in 1786 under the ancien régime to review debts between British capitalists and settlers after the French conquest of Tobago.
The report reconstructs the background of the island’s transfer: originally ceded to Britain in 1763, Tobago had been largely settled and financed by British investors who lent capital for the development of sugar estates, secured by mortgages. Following the French conquest (1781) and definitive cession (Treaty of Paris, 1783), the treaty guaranteed the inhabitants’ property rights under English law. Nevertheless, in 1786 the Conseil du Roi created a special commission at Tobago to investigate alleged usury and excessive interest rates in these mortgage contracts. The commission—presided by the governor and ordonnateur—confiscated titles, annulled or reduced debts, and declared most English claims void, provoking losses estimated at over 13 million livres.
This Rapport examines the legality of the tribunal under both French and English law, concluding that it was arbitrary, unconstitutional, and in violation of the 1783 peace treaty. The committees show that English statutes were misquoted, that the island’s existing courts (Common Pleas and Chancery) already had proper jurisdiction, and that no disputes existed before the commission was imposed. The report also denounces the suppression of trial by jury and the disregard of due process. It recommends—and the Assembly accepted—that the entire commission and its judgments be annulled, thereby restoring lawful jurisdiction in the colony. The episode marked one of the last acts of French administration on Tobago, which was recaptured by Britain in April 1793, returned to France in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, and formally surrendered under the Treaty of Paris in 1814.
An important Revolutionary document reflecting early attempts to reconcile French constitutional principles with colonial administration and international treaty obligations.
Not in Sabin. No records on RBH. WorldCat locates 6 copies.
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Price: €3,000.00