Roderigue Hortalez and Company

The Seven Years' War had gone badly for France, which had lost all of New France and had been militarily humiliated by the British. Spain, who had been an ally of France late in the war, had lost the strategically important territory of Florida. Britain, meanwhile, had expanded its colonial territories across large areas of North America. In 1773, a jealous nobleman got into a scuffle with Beaumarchais, resulting in the playwright spending ten weeks in jail and losing his citizenship rights. To get out of legal trouble Pierre Beaumarchais pledged his services to the king in order to get his civil rights restored. In 1774, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs by Louis XVI. Vergennes was strongly anti-British, at one point declaring "England is the natural enemy of France." His chance to strike at Britain came through Pierre Beaumarchais. ==The proposal==

Beaumarchais, working as a secret agent, had traveled to London in pursuit of Chevalière d'Éon, an agent of Louis XVI, who had threatened the King with blackmail. During that period Beaumarchais fell in with the dissolute crowd that surrounded John Wilkes, the Mayor of London. There he received a letter from the Continental Congress, delivered by Arthur Lee. In it Congress suggested to his government that it should encourage the rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies by sending secret military aid disguised as a loan. Beaumarchais believed Britain's economy would be significantly crippled without the Thirteen Colonies. ==Opposition==

The only major opposition to the plan came from French minister of finance Baron Turgot. He insisted that American independence would occur whether or not France financed the rebellion. He said the funding would add to the already heavy burden of a general French military and naval buildup and would lead to bankruptcy. Turgot eventually resigned in protest. ==The operation in action==

Louis XVI and Vergennes agreed. Both states were unwilling to openly show their support, at least until after the rebellion had successfully begun. Before the Declaration of Independence was even signed, weapons and other necessities were already flowing via the ostensibly neutral Dutch island of St. Eustatius. Muskets, cannons, cannonballs, gunpowder, bombs, mortars, tents, and enough clothing for 30,000 men were sent. This assistance kept American hopes alive during the spring of 1776. ==The rebels welch on payment==

Hortalez & Co. conducted business with the Americans from France through Connecticut merchant Silas Deane, who was sharing a covert trade agency with Thomas Morris, the half-brother of Robert Morris (financier). Because this business did not include him, Arthur Lee made it a point that Deane would never be paid his commission on the goods Beaumarchais provided by ensuring that the Frenchman was never paid. By convincing the committee not to pay its debt in order to avoid creating a trail that could reveal the Americans' dealing with the French to the British, Lee succeeded in both forcing Deane (who eventually died trying to prove that he was due his rightful compensation) into disgrace and poverty for years and destroying Beaumarchais financially. In an August 16, 1777, letter from Lee to the "secrete committee of congress", he wrote of Beaumarchais that: ==References==