Bonaparte Napoleon



Napoleon Bonaparte LS Cracking Down on Misdirected Spanish Funds  

2pp LS in French inscribed in a clerical hand and signed by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) as "Napol" along a diagonal orientation on the second page verso. Written in Le Havre, France on May 29, 1810.  The watermarked cream bifold paper has gilt edges. In near fine condition with expected light paper folds, each sheet measuring 7.25" x 9". From the Marc-Arthur Kohn sale, "The Empire in Paris," December 2, 2013 (Paris, France), part of Lot 117.  

Napoleon Bonaparte--emperor, military commander, and imperial administrator--addressed this letter to his Minister of Public Treasury, Nicolas Francois, Count Mollien (1758-1850), in the spring of 1810.  It dates from the middle of the Peninsular War (1807-1814), a conflict precipitated when Napoleon attacked his former ally Spain in 1808. For almost the next decade, Napoleon's generals waged a stalemated war against Sixth Coalition forces Britain, Spain, and Portugal.  

Napoleon's "Spanish Army" (Armee d'Espagne) consisted of approximately 300,000 troops of mixed origin (French, Italian, and Confederation, or German states.) Napoleon had enjoyed great military success while personally leading his 500,000+ strong Grande Armee through Europe. Yet he only spent about two months of the 7-year-long Peninsular War in Spain. Instead, distracted by other fronts in Russia and Western Europe, Napoleon relegated control of the Spanish Army to a handful of fractious generals.  

Translation from the French; page breaks have been added for greater legibility.  

“Monsieur Count Mollien, I am responding to your letter of May 14th regarding the employment of the Spanish army. The decree that you propose is worthless. You will receive another one. I have appointed Sieur Tonnelier the Resident General Collector of Bayonne. See the war minister because he is sending out my decree by special couriers. Send an order on your part directing your appointed collectors to proceed forthwith to their new posts. –   Give the war minister the names of those collectors who collected while in Spain, so that he can send them to Paris to evaluate them and treat them severely, because I hear that all the funds are ending up in Spain. = Because of this, give instruction to your General Collector. He must by no means interfere with administration; he will instantly know which collectors are involved, and which funds are being diverted or being allowed to be diverted; they will be responsible for it one day or another.   On this, I pray that God keeps you in his holy care. Havre May 29, 1810.   Napol.”  

Napoleon had perfected the process of integrating conquered territories into his domain after ten years of empire-building. The first task after military takeover was establishing a local bureaucracy so that funds from abroad could be channeled back to the war machine. This could certainly explain some of Napoleon's anxiety about misdirected funds.  

Nicolas Francois, Count Mollien was an astute financier who had been active since before the French Revolution and had observed firsthand wartime financial practices in England. He served as Napoleon's Minister of the Public Treasury between January 1806-April 1814. Although Napoleon greatly respected Count Mollien's acumen, he sometimes reproached him for being out of touch. Some of this irritation is apparent in Napoleon's blunt critique of his finance minister: "The decree that you propose is worthless."  

The "war minister" referred to throughout this letter was Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke (1765-1818), who served as Napoleon's Minister of War between August 1807-November 1813. In this capacity, General Clarke handled military matters ranging from inspection and provisioning, to conscription and internal discipline. General Clarke was recognized for his great service when he was granted the honorary title of Duc of Feltre in August 1809.  



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