LETTER XXXVIII.--TO SAMUEL OSGOOD, January 5, 1787
TO SAMUEL OSGOOD.
Paris, January 5, 1787.
Dear Sir,
I am desired to forward to you the enclosed queries, and to ask the
favor of you to give such an answer to them, as may not give you too
much trouble. Those which stand foremost on the paper, can be addressed
only to your complaisance; but the last may possibly be interesting to
your department, and to the United States. I mean those which suggest
the possibility of borrowing money in Europe, the principal of which
shall be ultimately payable in land, and in the mean time, a good
interest. You know best whether the suggestion can be turned to any
profit, and whether it will be worth while to introduce any proposition
to Congress thereon. Among the possible shapes into which a matter of
this kind may be formed, the following is one. Let us suppose the public
lands to be worth a dollar, hard money, the acre. If we should ask of a
monied man a loan of one hundred dollars, payable with one hundred
acres of land at the end of ten years, and in the mean time, carrying
an interest of five per cent.
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