1808 portrait of Hepzibah Swan painted by Gilbert Stuart . Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston .
introduction of Swan to both the Comte de Rochanbeau and the Marquis de Chastellux , which Washington did on February 28 , 1785 . Swan used these letters to help open doors to the upper strata of French society .
Before leaving for France later in 1787 , Washington ’ s thorough and detailed diary notes that Swan visited him at Mt . Vernon on January 17 , 1787 . Soon after his overnight stay there , Swan wrote to Washington , indicating he had left him a copy of his pamphlet on financial planning of the United States . Swan ’ s pamphlet , a copy of which he also sent to Thomas Jefferson , was titled , “ National Arithmetick [ sic ]; or Observations on the Finances of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : with Some Hints respecting Financiering [ sic ] and Future Taxation in This State .”
Swan ’ s financial adventures were just beginning . It was likely soon after his arrival in France in 1787 that either Rochambeau or Chastellux — or perhaps Lafayette — introduced Swan to an aristocrat named Pierre-Gilbert Leory D ’ Allarde , who would prove a profitable partner prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 . Swan and D ’ Allarde established a mercantile business under the name of Swan , D ’ Allarde et Cie , which initially sold American food products , gunpowder and saltpeter used in making gunpowder to the French army .
By the late 1780s , France had suffered several years of harsh droughts and subsequent poor harvests , requiring the importation of fundamental food . Hunger suffered by both the rural and urban poor helped incite the French Revolution , including the bread riots led by women who marched from Paris to Versailles in protest .
Swan made formal proposals in French and English that he shared with the French government ’ s leadership , as well as US Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson . The proposals were written on July 7 , 1788 , just under a year before the storming of the Bastille in Paris on July 24 , 1789 . Swan proposed to sell the French wheat , beef , sheep and other food with the following schedule of payment :
Payment to be made in specie , but in order to encourage the use of French articles in America … the contractors will hold themselves bound to take 15 % of their payment in wines , brandies , and French products in the first year , 25 % the second year , and each year afterward during the life of the contract an additional 2½ %, the amount of supplies to be augmented in similar manner by an additional 2½ % each year after the second year .
In 1789 , Swan sold large shipments of wheat and other food from the United States to help mitigate the hunger in France . In the course of the multi-year revolution that unraveled into radical turmoil , Swan ’ s partnership with D ’ Allarde dissolved , as noblemen such as D ’ Allarde became persona non grata . The revolution created an increased demand for alcohol in France , as well as an opportunity for the creative capitalist Swan to open a rum distillery outside of Paris in Passy .
By 1794 , Swan ’ s skills as a merchant and potential government liaison between the United States and France had become wellknown , as a letter from James Monroe to James Madison on September 20 attests . Monroe informed Madison that Swan had resided in France for “ some years ” and noted that his return to the United States was impending . After almost seven years abroad , Swan returned home in late 1794 .
Based on a series of memoranda Swan addressed to the French commission des subsistances at the Archives Nationales in Paris , Swan suggested the commission pay him not with specie the French could ill
26 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Fall 2017 | www . MoAF . org