Benjamin Franklin Papers
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John Bondfield to the American Commissioners, 17 [i.e., 16] August 1778: résumé

John Bondfield to the American Commissioners7

ALS: American Philosophical Society

<Bordeaux, August 17 [i.e., 16]8, 1778: Captain Ayres’s poor health probably precludes his return voyage with your dispatches.9 Instruct me concerning his successor. Ships like his could transport goods to America quickly; if financial considerations permit, I could execute a partial order. I do not wish to seem presumptuous but I am herewith submitting a plan designed to restore confidence in the inflated American currency.1 P.S. I send this by M. Le Normand of the House of Le Couteulx & Cie. of Cadiz, to whom I draw the commissioners’ attention for his extensive connections and ability to provide information.2>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

7Published in Taylor, Adams Papers, VI, 373–4.

8In his letter below of Aug. 17, Bondfield says this letter was written the previous day. We therefore elect to publish it under Aug. 16. It is also possible that the latter letter was misdated, and that the two were written on Aug. 17 and 18.

9See his letter of July 29; also, William James Morgan, Captains to the Northward: the New England Captains in the Continental Navy (Barre, Mass., 1959), p. 150.

1To BF, on or before Aug. 16, below.

2The Cadiz branch of this Parisian house was called Le Couteulx, Le Normand & Cie. Simon-Emmanuel-Julien Le Normand (or Normant) subsequently became receiver general of finance in La Rochelle: Lüthy, Banque protestante, II, 458 n, 700. For Le Couteulx & Cie. see above, XXVI, 467 n.

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