The outbreak of war in Europe in 1793 provided a notoriously unique opportunity to the shipping and trade of the United States, which benefited greatly from American neutrality. Exports increased from $17 million dollars in 1791 to $93 million in 1801 and $108 million in 1807﹜ Scholars have been interested primarily in the short and long-term impact of this growth on the economy of the United States. Historians have also paid attention to the impressive development of shipping activities in major port cities and the ventures of captains and seamen across the world oceans. However, little interest has been paid to the rapid establishment and consolidation of new trade networks. This paper will analyze the extension and the organization of American shipping and trade to Bordeaux which, on the eve of the French Revolution, was the major French port.

Franco-American relations in these years have been studied essentially within the framework of diplomatic history. Insofar as trade between the two countries is concerned, only certain specific aspects, such as the license trade or privateering, have received comprehensive study. Scholars who analyzed the growth of American trade were understandably not particularly interested in commerce to France, since it played only a limited role in the expansion of the foreign trade of the United States. One could expect that French scholars would show more interest in these matters. However, even if Paul Butel and Jeanne Chase have underlined the American presence in the trade of Bordeaux, we still lack a detailed analysis of the role played by the Americans during the French Wars. In particular, while French and American merchants did establish some commercial relations before 1793, the rapidity with which the trade and shipping network between the United States and Bordeaux was organized after the outbreak of the war is intriguing, and calls for explanation.

It is relatively easy to understand why this trade grew: the opportunities for profit in war time were appealing enough to motivate merchants, and the increasing difficulties of European neutral carriers gave North American merchants a strong comparative advantage. It is of course possible to delineate the evolution of trade during this period and even to identify the irregularities in its patterns, thus analyzing when and how much this trade grew.