Autograph letter signed by Edme-Etienne Desfourneaux French Revolution 1796-1798

DESFOURNEAUX, Edme-Étienne Borne (1767–1849). Autograph letter signed about a financial dispute. 
 
25 Germinal [French Revolutionary calendar; mid-April, c. 1796–1798].
 
4 pages on a single bifolium (one sheet folded), 220 × 170 mm. Manuscript in ink, written on all four sides. Original folds; light toning and minor handling wear consistent with age, overall very good.
 
A substantive Revolutionary-period business letter concerning the proposed sale or transfer of a public office, the use of delegated authority (procuration), and the payment of a large sum (12,000 livres). Desfourneaux discusses the pressure to conclude the transaction, rejects settlement in assignats (the rapidly depreciating paper currency of the French Revolution), and expresses dissatisfaction with his agent’s conduct, asserting his intention to proceed rigorously and to recover control of the matter.
 
The date is given according to the French Revolutionary calendar (“25 Germinal”), placing the letter in April during the Directory period. The writer is almost certainly Edme-Étienne Borne, later comte Desfourneaux, Revolutionary general and colonial administrator, then active in financial and administrative affairs.