Basement Whatever

The Revolutionary army got weapons from the French, which secretly smuggled them to the USA to destabilize the British, and the Frenchman who did the work was one of the most fascinating people in history. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais not only wrote The Marriage of Figaro, he played a pivotal role in the American Revolution:

Beaumarchais was given the go ahead to form a company as a front to cover the clandestine activities. Roderigue Hortalez and Company was “set up as a ‘black’operation” to buy munitions from the French government on credit, sell them to the Americans, and then reimburse the government, thereby disposing of its surplus equipment at a tidy profit.

As a result of Beaumarchais:

Armaments and supplies arrived for the Continental Army, which was largely clothed, provisioned, and armed from the supplies Beaumarchais was able to procure. Historian Simon Schama referred to Beaumarchais as the “startlingly aggressive and enterprising propagandist for the Americans,” who “fitted out an entire private navy and armaments for the rebels and whose own pocket made up the difference between the escalating cost of French assistance and secret royal disbursements.”

Read the entire thing here, or if you’re particularly interested, read Improbable Patriot, a fascinating biography of the life of Beaumarchais.