1. The letter to Hamilton from the Dutch banking firm of Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard of 1 May 1793 reported that the United States “required a Loan for Two Millions of Guilders” to meet the first installment and interest payment due on 1 June for the Dutch loan contracted in 1782. On this and other past U.S. loans and the need for new ones, see Hamilton to GW, 18 Mar. 1793, and notes 3–6, 8, 10, and 3 June 1793, and notes 2–3.

GW responded to this letter and its enclosure with a letter to Hamilton of 22 July: “A variety of matters which have called for immediate attention, have prevented my taking up your letter of the [ ] inst. enclosing one from our Commissioners at Amsterdam, dated the 1st of May last. It appears from that letter, that the reimbursement of one million of florins, due on the 1st of June 1793, has been prolonged for ten years; & that you have made considerable remittances to them.

“I wish therefore to know, whether this prolongation of reimbursement may not lessen the necessity of borrowing to so great an amount as might otherwise be expedient, for the purpose of our foreign Debt, & whether those remittances do not operate a similar effect?” (LB, DLC:GW). For Hamilton’s answer to this question, see his letter to GW of 24 July. For GW’s eventual approval of new foreign loans, see GW to Hamilton, 27 July, and enclosure, and GW to Hamilton, 8 Aug. 1793 (first and second letters).