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Roderigue Hortalez and Company was an enterprise that funneled covert military and financial aid by France and Spain to American revolutionaries prior to the formal alliance of France with the American revolutionary government against Britain.[1] With the backing of Louis XVI's minister Vergenne, the ruse was organized by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a French playwright, watch-maker, inventor, musician, politician, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms-dealer, and revolutionary.[2] Through the company, weapons and other war material were directed to help the insurgent Americans fight the British, longtime rival of France which had just defeated France in the Seven Years' War, taking France's North American territory.
- ^ Jones, Howard (2002). Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913. Scholarly Resources Inc. p. 5. ISBN 0-8420-2916-8.
- ^ "H. Rept. 18-64 - Report of the select committee, to whom was referred the message of the President of the United States in relation to the representatives of the late Caron de Beaumarchais. February 16, 1824. Read: Ordered that it lie upon the table". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 20 June 2023.