A bibliography of French colonial history in America will be found in the Guide of Channing and Hart, in the Cambridge mod. hist., vol. 7, pp. 766-771, or in R. G. Thwaites, France in America, N. Y. Harper, 1905. The last named book is not so serviceable for purposes in view here as others in the same series; and the student will turn by preference to Cambridge mod. hist., vol. 7, chap. 3, where the subject of the French in America (1608-1744) is treated by Miss Mary Bateson, with due regard to economic interests. Of Parkman’s works see especially The old régime, Boston, Little, 1902, $2. Norman, Colonial France, London, 1886, covers briefly the history of all the French colonies; the French West Indies are included in A. K. Fiske. S. L. Mims, Colbert’s West India policy, New Haven, 1912, is a scholarly study of a particular topic. CHAPTER XXV FRANCE: POLICY =280. History of the French customs tariff.=—After this survey of the development of French commerce we can gain an appreciation of the opportunities for still greater growth that were lost, by considering the obstacles with which the merchant had to contend. First of all, as a matter of course, there was the customs tariff on the frontier. This went through the normal course of development in the period under consideration. The government attempted to reduce to some sort of system the scattered duties of the earlier period; and under the influence of mercantilist doctrines it ceased to use the duties chiefly for raising revenue. The idea of using the tariff to protect home industries, which was at first held vaguely and applied only occasionally, gained strength with time and was made by Colbert, a minister of Louis XIV, the chief point in the tariff system. In 1664, and again three years later, the duties were raised to protect home manufactures; duties were raised twofold and more, and when wares were found still entering the kingdom they were in some cases absolutely prohibited. The high tariff led to reprisals on the part of other countries, and strained political relations with them; it was one of the causes of open war with the Dutch. It remained throughout the period a serious obstacle to commerce with advanced industrial countries like England and Netherland; the breaches made in it by commercial treaties were comparatively unimportant; and smuggling formed in France as in England the real safety-valve of the commercial system.