Letter Signed, as Minister of the Interior, to the Minister of War, about the transport of large quantities of grain from Marseilles to Bastia, and its distribution by CHAPTAL, Jean-Antoine

Ministry of the Interior, Paris, 17 Ventose an 11 [8 March 1803]. In French. 2 pp. 9 x 7 inches, integral address leaf (torn at seal opening), in good condition. Jean-Antoine Chaptal, comte de Chanteloup (1756-1832), French chemist and statesman, established a factory for the production of sulphuric acid, alum, etc., and became head of the gunpowder works at Grenelle (1793), and then Minister of the Interior (1800-1804). Author of works on applied chemistry, especially dyeing, agriculture, viticulture and wine making. The process of adding sugar to unfermented wine in order to increase the final alcohol level is known as chaptalization after him.