French Diplomacy in Haiti

French envoys arrived in porte prints to offer a deal, political recognition in exchange for cold, hard cash. Since france couldn't recognize boyer as president of haiti, charles the tenth's lawyers had to dream up a pretty insulting diplomatic formula. The inhabitants of the french part of saint domain would pay 150 million francs over five instalments to compensate french planters for their losses. "No one has any idea where the hundred and 50 million comes from," he says. 'It was just a really big made up number'