I. Statement of the American Debt to France, [ca. 12 February 1793]
I. Statement of the American Debt to France
| Loan of 18. Millns. | 6. Millns. Interest payable | 10. Millions | Total due in Dollars. | Payments made each year. | Balance unpaid at end of each year. | ||||||
| Principal payable | Interest payable | Principal payable | Interest payable | ||||||||
| day of paiment Sep. 3. | day of payment Jan. 1. | day of payment Nov. 5. | |||||||||
| 1784. | 900,000 | 300,000 | |||||||||
| 1785. | 900,000 | 300,000 |  |
this interest was paid for 1784. & 1785. qu. if for any years since till 1790? | |||||||
| 1786. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 400,000 | |||||||
| 1787. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | ||||||
| 1788. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | ||||||
| 1789. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | ||||||
| 1790. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | ||||||
| 1791. | 1,500,000 | 900,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | ||||||
| 9,000,000 | 7,200,000 | 2,400,000 | 5,000,000 | 2,400,000 | |||||||
| 26,000,000 | 4,788,333 | 3,372,717 | 1,415,616 | ||||||||
| 1792. | 1,500,000 | 450,0001 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 200,000 | ||||||
| 3,450,0002 | 635,375 |  |
626,500 | |
668,4914 | ||||||
| 726,0003 | |||||||||||
| 1793. | 1,500,000 | 450,000 | 300,000 | 1,000,000 | 160,0005 | <5,423,708> | |||||
| 3,410,000 | 628,008 | ||||||||||
Note, if any sums of interest on the 10. Millions were paid after 1785. and before the remittance of Dec. 3. 1790. such sums will be to be deducted from the balance stated to be unpaid, that is to say, they will diminish that balance so much.
| D ₶ f | ₶ D f | f D ₶ | |
| 1.=5.43=2.5 | 1.=.1841⅔=.46 | 1.=.4=2.1719 | Hamilton makes par of metals ₶ 1=.18156 |
MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 81: 14120); undated; entirely in TJ’s hand; with one notation added at a later date (see note 6 below).
TJ prepared this statement of the American debt to France in connection with Document iv below, probably working from a table he had recently received from the French minister (see Enclosure No. 1 listed at Jean Baptiste Ternant to TJ, 9 Feb. 1793). For a discussion of this debt, on which no principal or interest payments were made After 1785. and before the remittance of dec. 3. 1790, see Samuel F. Bemis, “Payment of the French Loans to the United States, 1777–1795,” Current History, xxiii (1926), 824–31.
1. First digit written over “2.” Second and third digits written over illegible digits.
2. Second digit written over “2.”
3. Number and braces apparently inserted subsequently.
4. Number written over erased sevendigit number beginning with a “1,” possibly “1,394,491,” a change which the insertion of the second number in the adjacent entry would have dictated (see preceding note).
5. Number written on top of erased eight-digit number, possibly “29,450,000,” the sum of the three numbers above before the last was emended (see note 2 above) and the equivalent in livres of the dollar figure erased in the next column.
6. Judging from the smaller handwriting, TJ added this notation at a later date, probably around 5 June 1793, when he used this rate of exchange in his opinion on opening a new foreign loan.