Mike,I think you are on to something here.Quoting again from Gaier p.57,
"As example of military purchases we may refer to some
well known
[url] transactions.In[/url] 1632 Jacques de Chastenet,
the lord of Puysegur,is ordered by Louis XIII to
purchase four thousand muskets and two thousand
corselets in Flanders.He procures them in Liege
and Utrecht,has the firearms proved in Holland
and from there takes them by boat to Rouen."
Bouchard has described Martial Fenis de la Combe,the director of the Tulle Factory in the early 18th century having crates of guns manufactured at St. Etienne unloaded at his factory,"The Fusil de Tulle In New France 1691-1741" by Russel Bouchard P.5
"Holland was,instead,a centre for re-export to every region of the world. Firearms were distributed far and wide by Amsterdam and Rotterdam.The operations of fowarding centres,a characteristic feature of the arms trade,must always be borne in mind whenever we seek to discover the final destination of any product",Gaier PP.56-57
In addition to complete guns Liegeois dealers were exporting spare parts,Gaier,P.58
"According to a petition by the syndics of Saint-Etienne in 1780,Liege was then exporting to France ten times more arms than the Saint-Etienne factory itself was producing" Gaier,P.58
In the 16th through the 18th century and possibly before Liege was the major firearms prodcer of Europe
"An order prohibiting war supplies for the United States from being transported through the Low Countries was promulgated on the 27th April,1776.It had no real effect. It was followed in fact,according to the reports of French diplomats in Liege, by a burst of feverish activity on the part of the arms manufacturers,particularly Claude Niquet and Jean Gosuin who were busily supplying not only the Americans,via Holland,but also British emissaries with muskets,pistols,bayonets,gun-barrels and stocks in tens of thousands." Gaier P.60
We have all {or at least some of us}read about the ship loads of arms including parts arranged by Ben Franklin to be sent by France to America for the Revolution.It is,therefore, entirely within reason that the same types of goods were being exported from Liege via Holland and Rotterdam to New France,New Netherland,and the colonies before the Revolution.One can then theorize that Liege barrels were shipped first to Saint-Etienne for proving and then either to England for proving or,and very possibly ,fake English and/or French marks were added prior to trans-shipment to the colonies.And we think we know how to wheel and deal? Have I confused you enough?
Cheers
Tom Patton :thumbsup: :what:
