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Event

American debt to France

The money France lent the United States between 1778 and 1782, and the dispute and settlement over repaying it, to 1795.

7 links, 7 backed by primary records

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Dates
1778–1795

Connections 7

involved

  • French royal government lent 18 million livres to the United States, 1778 to 1782 Primary record 1
  • Alexander Hamilton drafted the Treasury answer declining an early repayment, 1793; the editors say the refusal was agreed across the administration Primary record 23
  • Thomas Jefferson agreed to refuse, urged giving reasons, and was for paying that year's instalments early if it was safe Primary record 4
  • United States government stopped interest payments in 1785 and missed instalments in 1787 Primary record 56
  • United States government settled the debt with the French government in 1795 Primary record 5

followed from

Timeline 1 date
  1. 1778–1795 American debt to France
Proof 6 sources
  1. Contract between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America, signed at Versailles July 16, 1782, Yale Law School, Avalon Project, 16 Jul 1782. Primary record
    amount to the sum of eighteen million of livres, money of France
    It is agreed and certified that the sums advanced by His Majesty to the Congress of the United States under the title of a loan, in the years 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, and the present 1782, amount to the sum of eighteen million of livres, money of France
  2. Alexander Hamilton's Draft Report on the American Debt to France, with Jefferson's Commentary, [5 June 1793], National Archives, Founders Online, 5 Jun 1793. Primary record Archived copy
    The US. not being bound by the terms of their contract to make the anticipated payments desired, there is no necessity for a specification of the motives for not doing it.
  3. Editorial Note: Jefferson and the American Debt to France (Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 26), National Archives, Founders Online, 1995. Scholarship & press Archived copy
    there was general agreement in the administration over the advisability of rejecting his request
  4. Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 6 June 1793, National Archives, Founders Online, 6 Jun 1793. Primary record Archived copy
    We are then to examine what are our good reasons for the refusal, which of them may be spoken out, and which may not. 1. want of confidence in the continuance of the present form of government, and consequently that advances to them might commit us with their successors. This cannot be spoken out.
    If the instalments falling due in this year can be advanced, without incurring those dangers, I should be for doing it.
  5. U.S. Debt and Foreign Loans, 1775-1795 (Milestones), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    stopping payments of interest to France in 1785 and defaulting on further installments that were due in 1787
    In 1795, the United States was finally able to settle its debts with the French Government with the help of James Swan, an American banker who privately assumed French debts at a slightly higher interest rate.
    During the American Revolution, a cash-strapped Continental Congress accepted loans from France.
  6. Statement of the American Debt to France, [ca. 12 February 1793] (Jefferson's table, with editors' note), National Archives, Founders Online, 12 Feb 1793. Primary record Archived copy
    no principal or interest payments were made After 1785. and before the remittance of dec. 3. 1790
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