5. Beaumarchais worked to capitalize Hortalez at Cie
Beaumarchais procured 1 million livres each from the Crown treasuries of the Bourbon kings of France and Spain. He then issued stock in the company of Hortalez et Cie, selling it to friends, the royal treasuries, and other investors. His prospectus for the company described it as being formed to trade with the French and Spanish colonies in the West Indies and Spanish America. Neither the French government nor that of Spain had any official connection with the company. One investor in Beaumarchais’ scheme was a young Frenchmen named Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, an aristocrat known by his title, the Marquis de Lafayette.
Aware that the Americans had no money to speak of, Beaumarchais directed his traders to accept American products as payment. In theory, Congress paid for supplies with grain, rice, indigo, rum, tobacco, and other products. The trading firm sold them for profit in the West Indies or in Europe. In reality, the Continental Congress had no authority to levy the goods to sell. Such authority remained in the hands of the state legislatures and their governors. The Americans had not yet declared independence and some states opposed the idea of a complete break with Great Britain. Beaumarchais was in the position of creating a covert operation serving a government which did not yet exist.