Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from E. Shervell, 12 February 1762

From E. Shervell

ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania

I.N.
Benj Franklin Esqr

12 feby. 1762

Sir

In consequence of Mr. Brown’s order I have Enclosed the Account of Sales of the fifteen thousand Pounds 3 per Cents. Which I hope will be agreable. Yours

E Shervell

Addressed: To / Benj Franklin Esqr / Craven street / in the Strand

Endorsed: from J. Brown Banker in Lombard Street. respecting the Sale of Stocks.

Sales £15000 3 per Cts. No 7

[Enclosure]

I.N.

sold for Benj. Franklin Esqr.

1762
Jan 12. £4000 Consd.7 3 per Cent. to W Morris at 64¼. Extra Divd
£2570   
£1000. Do. to M Langdale 64¼.  642.10 
3212.10 
Brokerage   6.5    £3206.58
15 £3000. Do. to G Rutt 64½ 1935 -  
16. £1000. Do. to T Greenwood 64⅜ 643.15 
£ 300. Do. to B Forward 64⅜ 193. 2.6
£ 700. Do. to N Dawes 64⅜  450.12.6
3222.10 
Brokerage    6. 5  3216.59  
feb. 1. £3000. Do. to Jo Canco 61⅞ 1856. 5 
£1800. Do. to W Gilbie 61⅞ 1113.15 
£200. Do. to W Morris 61⅞  123.15 
3093.15 
Brokerage    6. 5   3087.10  
per E Shervell £9500:0.01
[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

7Consolidated.

8BF bought £5000 of this stock on May 5, 1761, at 87½, the cost (including brokerage fee) being £4381 5s. See above, IX, 313.

9BF bought £10,000 of this stock, represented by these and the following blocks, between July 5 and Aug. 14, 1761, paying £8796 2s. 2d. (including brokerage fee and allowing for a discount for advance payment). See above, IX, 335.

1These transactions completed the sales of stock BF had bought for Pa. Together with the sales of November and December 1761 (above, IX, 392), they show that BF received total net proceeds of £21,936 10s. Analysis of his accounts indicates that in November 1760 he had in hand as the Pa. share of the parliamentary grant for 1758 a total of £26,618 14s. 5d., after all fees and expenses were met and Delaware’s share of the receipts and charges was adjusted, and after allowance is made for a small error in his accounts. During the next nine months he had bought and paid for £30,000 face value of stocks at a total cost of £26,977 19s. 8d. (he apparently overinvested the principal to the extent of £359 5s. 3d.). The forced sales of stock in the late autumn and the winter of 1761–62 therefore resulted in a loss of £5041 9s. 8d. from his stock transactions. Meanwhile, however, he had received £1064 in interest on the stock, a form of income the fund would not have received had he left it on deposit in the Bank of England as originally proposed. The net loss on the entire transaction, therefore, appears to have been £3977 9s. 8d. “Account of Expences,” pp. 54–5, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63; PMHB, LV (1931), 127–8, 129, 130, 131, 132.

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