From Benjamin Franklin to Le Couteulx & Cie., 2 July 1783
To Le Couteulx & Cie.
AL (draft): Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Passy, July 2. 1783
Gentlemen,
I have the honour of sending you enclos’d a Letter I have just receiv’d for you from Mr Morris.—7 I find that from a Mistake in his Expectations of the Funds I should be able to furnish, he has drawn on Mr Grand to a larger Amount than I can possibly supply.8 Mr Grand will therefore be obliged to protest some of those Bills unless Means can be found to prevent that Misfortune, which may be attended with very mischievous Consequences. As I understand that Mr Morris has Cash in your Hands,9 waiting his Orders, permit me to suggest to you my Opinion, that it will be doing a very acceptable Service to him and to our States, if you should consider his Drafts as Orders, and either pay them for his Honour, or furnish Mr Grand with Money to pay them as they arrive, as to you may seem most proper and convenient. I have the honour to be Gentlemen,
Messrs Couteulx & Co
Letter to Messrs le Couteulx
7. Dated May 31 and brought to France by Joshua Barney. It enclosed 18 bills of exchange totaling 506,204 l.t.: Morris Papers, VIII, 136–7n, 141.
8. See Morris to BF, May 26, letter (I), and Grand’s letters of June 2 and 27.
9. In April, Morris estimated that the firm had about 1,800,000 l.t.: Morris Papers, VII, 698.