The commitment of the administration to the revival of foreign trade under the Directory is still largely unknown. The unprecedented survey conducted on 5 December 1796 by the Minister of Foreign Relations with all "enlightened" merchants makes it possible to grasp the issues and the methods at play. While it brings to light the contradiction between commercial diplomacy and customs policy, it also reveals the reasons for the persistent separation between trade and administration. It was in fact the inability of politics to leave behind the "managed" economy of Year II and the "wild" liberalism of Year III that these merchants denounced, while at the same time reactivating the demand for freedom and protection inherited from 18th century liberalism. While this survey did not lead to authentic statistical processing, it was not without an ideological effect, by allowing the first formulation of "liberal republicanism”, by the man to whom its examination was entrusted: Charles Théremin.