Papers of John Adams, volume 17
d.1785
By Letter I received yesterday fm—Messrs: Willinks & Van Staphorsts of Amsterdam, I learn with much Concern the misfortune of their associates De la Lande & Fynje, who have stopped payment, indebted to the United States to the amount of one Hundred and twelve Thousand Florins—2 This House was recommended to me by the best and most judicious Friends of America in Amsterdam, and altho’ my entrusting our Loan to more than one House was ever disagreable to me The Junction of the three was recommended to me in so urgent a manner that it was not at that Time possible to avoid it—without exciting such a Clamour and such an opposition as would have defeated the loan entirely in the opinion of most of our friends.3 De La Lande & Fynje were in high Esteem among all those who had assisted us, and they were themselves not only useful to our Countrymen upon many occasions but very active in promoting our Cause, especially in promoting those Petitions to the Regencies of all the great Cities of Holland which finally turned the tide in our favour—and Silenced the opposition of the English Party— Their Characters have alway’s been fair. But the Calculations of the Merchants concerned in our Commerce have been so disappointed both in America and Europe that there is no foreseeing when or where their misfortunes will End—
I have heard there is large Property—really belonging to this House in the Hands of Mr. Ingraham at Philadelphia; of the House of Sailor & Seaver at New York and of Mr. William Foster at Boston— and altho it is said it cannot be attached as the property of De la Lande & Fynje because of a Contract whereby the property is conveyed to Mr. Geyer of London who Shipped it to America, yet I think it would be advisable for the Board of Treasury to take Measures for examining into this transaction—and Securing the Interest of the United States by an attachment, if it can be done.4
With the greatest respect and Esteem I have / the Honour to be—Gentlemen / Your most Obed. / & most Humble serv.
LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honourable / The Board of Treasury / of the United states / of America”; APM Reel 111.
The board received this letter on the morning of 2 Sept. and enclosed a copy with its letter of that date to the president of Congress, which was read on 5 Sept. (PCC, No. 215140, II, f. 55–61;
JCC
, 29:679). For the board’s action, taken in consequence of JA’s letter and intelligence received the previous evening, see its reply to JA of 5 Sept., and note 1, below.
Of 28 June, above.
In April 1782 Dutch recognition of the United States made the prospects for a Dutch loan seem promising. JA’s choice for the undertaking was the firm of John Hodshon & Zoon, but JA’s Patriot Party supporters objected that Hodshon was pro-British, leading JA to turn to the loan consortium. For the machinations leading to the consortium’s creation, see vols. 12:434–435, 440–441, 449–450, 462–463, 471–472; 13:xvii–xviii.
On 30 Aug. 1783, with Anglo-American hostilities having ceased and eager to profit from the commercial opportunities offered by the Dutch-American Treaty, De la Lande & Fynje signed a five-year contract with Boston merchant and loyalist Frederick William Geyer (d. 1803). The new entity of Geyer, De la Lande & Fynje sought to maximize long-term English credit while pursuing trade with American markets. The Dutch firm granted Geyer, then a refugee in London, sole control over the management of accounts and the purchase of goods for export. Along with several other Amsterdam banking houses, Geyer and his partners then established the North American Trade Association, with De la Lande & Fynje drawing on proceeds from the sale of American securities for the initial capital. Geyer spent £113,000 on merchandise—far more than he could ever hope to sell to the import-glutted markets of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City. Payment for the few goods sold was often slow to arrive, and the trade association quickly suffered.
By July 1785, as American business slackened and firms across Europe failed, De la Lande & Fynje asked to suspend payment on the trade association’s private transactions. Oversight of De la Lande & Fynje immediately splintered, as the Willinks, the Staphorsts, Clicquet & Co., and Couderc & Brants took on the firm’s private affairs. Four other banking houses—those of Etienne Lespinasse, Isaac ten Cate & Gebroeders Kops, and Christiaan van Eeghen—assumed supervision of the trade association. Since De la Lande & Fynje used proceeds from the sale of American securities, the United States faced a potential loss of ƒ112,000. JA was equally concerned about the plight of three American investors associated with Geyer’s defunct firm: Duncan Ingraham Jr., of the Philadelphia firm Sigourney, Ingraham & Bromfield, which had an outpost in Amsterdam; the New York City partnership of Shaler & Sebor; and the Boston merchant William Foster, whom AA and AA2 met on-board the Active en route to Europe in 1784 (Stark, Loyalists of Mass.
, p. 350; Winter, Amer. Finance and Dutch Investment
, 1:182–183, 215–219;
New-York Directory
, [1786], p. 47, Evans, No. 19655; JQA, Diary
, 1:57). For additional details regarding the circumstances surrounding De la Lande & Fynje’s bankruptcy, see the firm’s letter of 29 July 1785, and the letters from the Willinks and Staphorsts of 12 and 29 July, all below.
d.1785
I have received your Letter of the 28th. of June, and have conveyed your Letter to the Board of Treasury, by a Vessell which sails this Day for Rhode-Island—
I feel most sensibly for the Misfortune of your late associates, De La Lande & Fynje—and as their affairs are most probably irretrievable, it would be to no purpose to enquire how the disaster happened, or to make any Reflections upon it, any further than to enquire if there is any possible means of saving the interest of the United States, which was in their Hands. To this End Gentlemen, I 216must beg your most earnest Attention. Your situation and Intelligence, render you the only proper Persons to apply to upon the occasion And from your usual Promptitude, and Zeal in the service of the United States I am fully persuaded you will leave nothing undone which can preserve their Property.
I wish you Gentlemen to make dilligent Inquiry concerning their Property in America and to inform me, what has been the nature of their Connection with Mr. Geyer of London Mr. Ingraham of Philadelphia—the House of Shailor and Seaver at New York, and Mr. William Foster at Boston, and whether you think that any Proscess can be commenced against either, or the Effects of De La Lande & Fynje in the Hands of either, whereby the Interests of our Constituents may be secured—1
Lotter has arrived with my furniture, and I get into the House to day So that you will please to direct your future favours to me, “in Grosvenor Square at the Corner between Duke Street and Brook Street, Westminster—[”]
With great Esteem, I have the Honour to be / Gentlemen— / Your most Obedient / & most Humble sert.
LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Messrs: M. Wilhem and Jan Willink / and Nicholas & Jacob Van Staphorst”; APM Reel 111.
For the results of the bankers’ investigation, see their reply of 12 July, below.