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Ader

27 - Pierre-Samuel DU PONT DE NEMOURS (1739–1817), physiocrat, pu…
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Estimate €25,000 - €30,000
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Pierre-Samuel DU PONT DE NEMOURS (1739–1817), physiocrat, publicist and diplomat. 48 letters written by the author and 4 letters or notes, 1800–1814, to Jacques Necker (15), Louis Necker de Germany (3) and Germaine de Staël (34); approximately 130 pages, mostly in-8 or in-4 format, with addresses; plus a few enclosed documents. This lot will appear in the auction catalogue of AUDAP & Associés Tel.: +33 (0)1 83 750 500 - [email protected] An important and highly interesting collection of correspondence to shareholders from the early days of his American enterprise, between Necker and his daughter, Madame de Staël. Alongside accounts and financial matters, the letters abound with highly interesting political and economic observations on the situation in France and America, and on the development of the physiocrat’s American business ventures, whilst also reflecting a tender friendship with Madame de Staël, featuring literary and philosophical reflections. Here we can offer only a brief overview, with a few characteristic quotations, of these often lengthy letters. * To Jacques Necker (the letters are filed under six folders labelled in Necker’s own hand). – New York, 9 February 1800: ‘I find myself far from my country, and shortly after my departure, enlightened men have taken the reins of government. I wish them every success, which their enlightenment and courage lead me to expect. Anything that benefits my homeland will always stir my heart, but I can no longer bear witness to it. I can only contribute to it by helping to expand its trade, and perhaps, from time to time, through a few writings, if my business affairs allow me the leisure to do so. It was on my word and through personal trust in me that the Company was formed, which provided me with capital and entrusted me with managing these affairs here. It therefore seems likely that I shall end my life, just as you began yours, by devoting all my intelligence and prudence to commercial interests, and by living up, as far as I can, to the high opinion my friends have held of me. ‘He who has imposed duties upon himself is obliged to fulfil them’… He explains the method he intends to apply to his business affairs in America. – 21 August 1801. ‘Although you are not a member of my company, I regard you as one of its leaders and attach the utmost importance to your advice, because I find in it experience, insight and, it seems to me, genuine goodwill’; he speaks of his son Irénée and of ‘our gunpowder factory, which is one of our operations […] with which we are deeply involved’; he will raise funds at ‘six per cent a year’. – 9 October. ‘On the advice of Mr Delessert, we have adopted an arrangement to ensure that our European shareholders will never be affected by the differences between American and European laws regarding limited partnerships’; financial explanations regarding the operations of their firms in Paris and New York. – 14 October, regarding a receipt from Governor Morris. – Good Stay near New York, 9 November: “My son informs me that you are willing to entrust some ten thousand dollars to our firm.” – New York, 30 November, regarding the valuation of the funds received at 6 per cent: ‘I add to the formal and commercial gratitude of my firm the personal gratitude of my heart. […] It matters to me more than I can tell you that you should find me as hard-working and as capable in my new career as you were kind enough to believe me to be in those I pursued closer to you and which were no more foreign to you. The time, which you had foreseen as well as I, when peace would deal an unfortunate blow to trade in the United States, is now upon us. Since news of the signing of the Preliminary Treaties became known, thirty-nine ships have been put up for sale in New York. The fall in their prices may serve to enable us to fit out our passenger ships more economically, which I regard as an indispensable tool for all other business; and as a profitable venture for their operator, because passenger ships are sure to earn their freight regularly at a slightly higher rate than other vessels […] Peace makes it possible to undertake and pursue many other useful ventures, albeit less glamorous ones. And quite apart from the savings in human resources, the general increase in employment, wealth and population, and the accumulation of capital which war had halted and eroded – all matters so precious in philosophy and politics – it is very advantageous for the merchant to operate on a basis that is improving and within a framework that promises stability’, etc. ‘The First Consul is not a man to be unaware that prohibitions prohibit nothing; and that duties exceeding the smuggling premium by more than one or two per cent are illusory, serve only to hand over to the smuggler an income of which the State could enjoy, and provide no real encouragement to domestic manufacturers’… – New York, 21 March 1802. ‘It is to the firm of Du Pont (de Nemours) Père et Fils et Compagnie that you have entrusted your funds, not to a branch of that firm. Therefore, its shareholders are your debtors, and can only cease to be so through repayment’; explanations regarding the mortgage on his house at Good Stay; details on the role of Bureaux de Pusy following his appointment as prefect; Le Ray de Chaumont has a great deal of land for sale… ‘Peace in Europe will greatly slow down immigration. And there will be more of it in France than in the United States. It is true that the United States is the country in the world where the population grows most rapidly, because it is the one where children have the most to eat. Mortality rates are high there in the major cities. Chest ailments are numerous, even in the countryside, and prove fatal to the young, especially to girls. – But conjugal love, potatoes and beefsteaks will eventually put everything right’… Reading from Necker’s *Cours de morale religieuse*: ‘It is a joy to speak to men in the name of God, of the virtues whose seeds He has planted within them, and of the happiness to which they may ascend. It was through sermons that all of us, once young Huguenots, learnt to speak, to write, to understand the nuances of our language, and to express ourselves with harmony, dignity and feeling. The eloquence of Jean-Jacques [Rousseau], which all his fellow citizens speak with a certain flavour, is a Huguenot eloquence’…
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part I
Auction location
Auction time 10/13/2026 at 2:00 PM
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