From 1789 to 1791, many persons interested in the colonial adventure officially united in a club to defend their interests as much within Metropolitan France as in the Caribbean. An important network comprised of merchants and colonists soon developed. Their rhetoric rested on a clearly identifi able economic argument, and played a significant role in the acceptance of the club by the Constituent Assembly. For two years, this coalition supported by Barnave and Maury, and denounced by Robespierre, labored to obtain from the constituents in September 1791 the exclusion of Santo Domingo from universalist framework being conceived in metropolitan France.