Benjamin Franklin Papers
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The Conte di Scarnafiggi to the American Commissioners: Résumé, 2 February 1785

The Conte di Scarnafiggi to the American Commissioners6

LS and copy: National Archives

⟨Paris, February 2, 1785, in French: Having informed my court of the letter you wrote to me on September 22 of last year, notifying me that you were authorized by the United States of America to negotiate a treaty of commerce with His Sardinian Majesty,7 I hereby inform you that the king will be pleased if United States ships use the free port he has at Nice, where they will be well received. If in the future there is an occasion to establish commercial relations that are mutually convenient and useful, the king will make arrangements with the United States.8⟩

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6. Published in Jefferson Papers, VII, 632–3, and, with an English translation, in Adams Papers, XVI, 514.

7. Described in annotation of the commissioners’ letter to Sousa, Sept. 9.

8. The Sardinian government ultimately decided that its maritime trade with the United States was not substantial enough to warrant making a treaty that might antagonize Great Britain: Dante Visconti, Le Origini degli Stati Uniti d’America e l’Italia (Rome, 1940), p. 131.

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    Source Project
    Franklin Papers
    Title
    The Conte di Scarnafiggi to the American Commissioners: Résumé, 2 February 1785
    Author
    Scarnafiggi, Filippo Ottone Ponte, conte di
    Recipient
    American Commissioners
    Date
    2 February 1785

    Reference

    Cite as
    “The Conte di Scarnafiggi to the American Commissioners: Résumé, 2 February 1785,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-43-02-0289. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 43, August 16, 1784, through March 15, 1785, ed. Ellen R. Cohn. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018, p. 425.]