In seeking to define the colony's future, he found the past weighing inexorably upon it: Saint-Domingue had developed as a producer of sugar and coffee, and it was difficult to imagine any other role for it in the prevailing Atlantic economy. The colony had long depended on the importation of provisions, and in the late 1790s, with the Franco-British war dragging on, foreign trade was more crucial than ever. To attract foreign merchants, Saint-Domingue had to produce and export its traditional commodities.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 352