From Benjamin Franklin to Triol, Roux & Co., 12 April 1781
To Triol, Roux & Co.
AL (draft) and copy: Library of Congress
Passy April 12. 1781
Gentlemen,
I received yesterday the Letter you did me the honour of writing to me the 4th Instant. I shall take care to forward Copies of it by different Conveyances to Congress, and recommend it to their Consideration.6 It is only of one of their Loans that they pay the Interest in Europe, agreable to the Conditions of that Loan:7 But the Bills they draw for the Payment of that Interest are daily sold in America, by those who do not want Money in Europe, and your Correspondent there may purchase such Bills with the Interest Money he receives for you, and being sent to you they will be punctually paid by me here. It is certainly the Intention of Congress to do Justice to every body, and I am persuaded your Affair in America will not suffer by their fault, whatever it may by Accidents or the Mismanagement of your Agents. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Messrs Triol Roux & Co Negociants à Marseilles.
6. The firm’s letter is missing but they were hoping to obtain redress for the depreciation of $56,664 in continental currency received for part of the cargo of their ship, the Louise-Marie. Guillaume Reboul, the ship’s captain, had sold it in 1778 at Providence, R.I., for the use of the American army: Triol, Roux & Co. to BF, Feb. 21, 1783, APS. They pursued the case for years, writing President Washington on June 15, 1791, but Congress never took it under consideration: Dorothy Twohig et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series (8 vols. to date, Charlottesville, 1978–), VIII, 270–1.
7. BF and his fellow commissioners had volunteered in March, 1777, to pay the interest on loan office certificates, and their holders received favorable treatment when Congress devalued American currency in 1780: XXIII, 471; XXXIII, 153n.