MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 59: 10427); in TJ’s hand; undated but probably compiled about 1785–1786. Tr (DLC: Madison Miscellany); in Madison’s hand, with following at head of text: “Estimate [by Mr. Jefferson 17 ] of the annual exports of the U. States, those of the American Traveller (1769) taken as the basis but corrected. This statement refers to the exports prior to the Revolution.” Dft (DLC: TJ Papers, 2: 207–208); in TJ’s hand; at head of text: “Exports of the United states. According to the American traveller”; containing a list of “corrections” on verso; for variations between Dft and MS, see notes below.

The American Traveller: [Alexander Clunie], The American traveller: containing observations on the present state, culture and commerce of the British colonies in America, and the further improvements of which they are capable; with an account of the exports, imports and returns of each colony respectively,—and of the numbers of British ships and seamen, merchants, traders and manufacturers employed by all collectively … by an Old and Experienced Trader (London, 1769; see Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–1959, 5 vols. description ends No. 3611). Clunie, who argued on the eve of the American Revolution in favor of moderation and claimed that mutual advantage in commerce was “the most solid Basis, the strongest Cement of Union,” grounded his observations on his own experiences as a trader and on travels in the preceding quarter of a century in which he had traversed the whole coast of America from 68° north latitude to the tip of Florida and “penetrated some thousands of miles westward, into the Wilderness, many Parts of which were never before trodden by European feet.” TJ regarded him as more reliable than Sheffield (TJ to Brissot de Warville, 16 Aug. 1786). He may, in fact, have made use of his work as early as 1784 when he was engaged in preparing his own statistics on American commerce (see Vol. 7: 323–49). This conjecture is supported by the fact that the figures in Dft correspond with those given by Clunie, whereas the corrections as indicated in the notes below were drawn principally from his own later researches, particularly in respect to the tobacco monopoly and the fisheries. The obvious intent of the corrections was to enable TJ to approximate the volume and value of American exports in the postwar years. Clunie, for example, valued tobacco at £8 per hogshead, whereas TJ increased the figure to £15, approximately what it was in France in 1786 (TJ to Maury, 24 Dec. 1786). Only for Georgia were TJ’s final figures the same as those of Clunie, as the following comparison of totals will show:

(Clunie, American Traveller, pp. 47–8, 51, 57, 60, 62, 66, 70, and 74)