To Benjamin Franklin from Rodolphe-Ferdinand Grand, [after 22 December 1779]
From Rodolphe-Ferdinand Grand
AL: American Philosophical Society
[after December 22, 1779]6
Mr Grand a Lhonneur de presenter Son respect á Monsieur franklin & de lui observer qu’il Conviendroit peut etre denvoyer en hollande la notte des articles que Le Congrés demande pour en sçavoir Les prix & les Comparer avec Ceux des autres Pays doù l’on peut les tirer; il n’est pas necessaire dattendre pour Cella que les promesses soyent Imprimées.7 Mr Grand propose d’envoyer cette notte par le Courrier de Demain vendredy.
6. If this letter relates to the 1779 Congressional order for military supplies, which seems the most likely possibility, then it must have been written shortly after BF learned that he had obtained the French loan of 3,000,000 l.t.; see BF to JW, Dec. 22. We have no other evidence that BF ever considered ordering items from countries other than France.
7. Grand knew that BF was waiting for a shipment of marbled paper from London on which to print French loan certificates (or, as BF called them, “the Congress Promises”: to Grand, May 30, 1780, Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.) That shipment did not arrive until the end of May, 1780; see XXX, 345–6, 611–12.