M. Penet having entrusted me with negotiating with the tobacco farmers general, I made arrangements with M. Paulze. His letter of May 22, 1776, attests to this. I let M. Deane know this upon his arrival, and I left it at that for a long time.

Monsieur Deane, to whom they had proposed another plan in Bordeaux, paid little attention to my proposals.

In August, M. Paulze wrote me again about this, and I immediately showed his letter to M. Deane who seemed then to take charge of the matter in earnest. We went together to the home of M. Paulze, who even offered him financial advances. We made him hope for abundant cargoes of tobacco for the months of December, January, and February. M. Deane undertook to carry out the plan efficiently, and upon the insistence of M. Paulze, I guaranteed its execution by a letter dated August 20th.

M. Paulze reminded me of this letter in a letter of his own, October 9, and demanded that it be put into effect now that the tobacco had arrived in Nantes. I kept him waiting until M. Franklin's arrival.

The price of this tobacco was to be decided upon private agreement according to our conventions, thus ensuring that the farmers general would not look to other providers.

M. de Chaumont ruined our plans at this point; in order to attract all this business, he offered a better price for the tobacco, and made it understood to M. Deane and his associates that they should take advantage of the troubles besetting the farmers general.

As I was convinced that the farmers general should not be provoked that much, nor forced to look for other resources, I too offered a price for all the transactions involved; I promised to start a Company of honest and solid people, both French and American, and to import 20,000 hogsheads of tobacco at the rate of 7 cents a pound, by means of large financial advances on the part of the farmers general, or at 8 cents a pound without any advances. This proposal was well received, and the transaction should have been definitively completed by Saturday, January 4, 1777.

But during these transactions, M. de Chaumont had asked for an interview with the committee of the farmers general at the house of M. de Trudaine on Thursday, January 2, where he gave them misgivings about the Company's ability to keep its promises, or at least to fulfill them by the deadline; M. de Chaumont made our deal fall through, and yet he did not succeed in his own either.

It appears that the farmers general have dealt with the Dutch and others, in order to procure from diverse European countries a tobacco of a quality less than mediocre, but because of their exclusive privilege, they will dispose of it anyway, and they couldn't care less about the public outcry.

It seemed necessary to me that M. Franklin be well acquainted with these facts, in order to make use of them following his own Wisdom in the conversation which he will be having with M. de Trudaine.

The proposed Company can still take place. Not only does M. de Chaumont want to rejoin it, but yesterday I saw another one of our principal participants who strongly encouraged me to found it again along slightly different lines, and offered to invest larger sums, if need be.