BARING BROTHERS BANK. "Duplicate" AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. LONDON, JULY 5, 1815. 3pp.+ integral address leaf. To H.F.SAMPAYO, Lisbon, Portugal. (Folds, triangular cut from seal opening, not affecting handwriting; Very Good overall.  

A testament to the "business as usual" atmosphere in European and American high finance, just 18 days after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. The bankers send a copy of a letter from Captain Brown of the American ship Braganza, which had just returned from a voyage to Canton, China.  They also sent the apologies of their "mutual friend" Charles King for his failure to answer Sampayo's last letter, as he had "dislocated his shoulder" in a coach ride from Falmouth but was then recovering and in good health.  Finally, they had also received a letter from their friend David Parish (American banker, "one of the most influential players in the international financial community", trusted by President Madison as well as Talleyrand) confirming the safe arrival at Philadelphia of goods shipped to him. An accompanying letter, in a different handwriting, observes "with pleasure" that  a Captain Rutter had "succeeded in obtaining permission" for a shipment (possibly from Calais).  There is also a postscript which lists amounts of Dollars and Doubloons and various sums (received?) from Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg, Lisbon, Leghorn, Genoa, Naples, Gibraltar and Malta.

The recipient, Portuguese merchant SAMPAYO (possibly of Jewish Marano descent) had been one of Britain's most important contacts in Lisbon during the Peninsular Wars, not only providing the British Ambassador with high-level intelligence on the wartime "relationship between American and Great Britain", but also acting as trusted Commissary to the Duke of Wellington during the years he commanded British forces against the French in Spain, supplying Wellington's troops and even arranging a 50,000 Pound loan to the Field Marshal when he complained bitterly of the "inadequacy of the funds placed at my disposal" by the Government in London.