To Benjamin Franklin from Sellonf & Perrouteau, 29 November 1777
From Sellonf & Perrouteau1
LS: American Philosophical Society
Paris the 29th. November 1777
Honourable Sir
We are desired by our intimate friends Messr. Fairholme & Luther of St. Martin to forward their inclosed Letter for you,2 and Solicit a Speedy answer may equally go through our hands, werewith we remain respectfully Honourable Sir Your most Obedient Humble Servants
Sellonf Perrouteau
If you Would be so Kind as to inform us of the American bills Called gourdes,3 how to dispose of in the best way and at what rate, you Should Oblige us very much, as well by pardoning our being so troublesome.
To the Honble. Doctor B. Franklin at Passÿ
Notation: Selonf
1. In 1776 Paul Schlumpf, who had tried to gallicize his name and came out with Sellonf, joined with Jean-Pierre Perrouteau to form a banking house: Lüthy, Banque protestante, II, 437–8, 450–1.
2. Fairholme & Luther was a commercial firm in St. Martin, Ile de Ré. Their letter “for” BF was, we believe, a copy for him of their complaint the previous July about their fellow merchant, Baudin: above, XXIII, 512 n.
3. The French name for the Spanish-American dollar.