From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Sr., 20 April 1784
To Jonathan Williams, Sr.
ALS: Biblioteca Labronica
Passy, April 20. 1784
Dear Kinsman,
The Bearer, Mr Biederman, is recommended to me by Persons of Distinction, as a Gentleman of Worth & very respectable Character, charged with the Concerns and Interest of many principal Manufacturers and Merchants in Saxony, between which Country and ours I should be glad to see a commercial Intercourse opened and established, as it might be advantageous to both.8 I recommend him therefore very earnestly to your Civilities, and to all the Information & Advice that as a Stranger may be useful to him, wherein you will very much oblige Your affectionate Uncle
B Franklin
Jonathan Williams Esqr
8. This is the second time that BF recommended Biedermann to Williams; see the annotation of the March 29 letter from Graf von Brühl. Biedermann was back in Hamburg by August, 1785. Although his business ventures in Philadelphia were unsuccessful, his sanguine assessment of the prospects of trade with America contradicted the gloomy reports of Saxony’s official commercial agent, Philipp Thieriot (XL, 350–1, 555). Biedermann later claimed that Saxon government officials had led him to believe that he would be chosen for the mission assigned to Thieriot. Instead, Biedermann had to go into debt to finance his journey and went bankrupt: Christian Deuling, “Friedrich Justin Bertuch und der Handel mit Nordamerika,” in Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822): Verleger, Schriftsteller und Unternehmer im klassischen Weimar, ed. Gerhard R. Kaiser and Siegfried Seifert (Tübingen, 2000), pp. 199–205.