Talk:James Swan

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Naming, and should this exist?

"James Swan" doesn't seem like a unique name to me. If this article needs to exist, then it may need a more descriptive name, even more descriptive than "James Swan (banker)". Pat Palmer (talk) 09:03, 14 August 2022 (CDT)

  • Yeah. I came across a reference, yesterday, to a James Swan, who paid off the US National Debt to France, incurred during the American Revolution. I googled him. My first search did not find a wikipedia article about him. Odd. So I started this.

    It turns out the wikipedia does have an article about him, at "James Swan (financier)". But that article, and a bunch of other references that seem to merely crib from it, fall short.

    They all say that, in 1795, "After the American Revolution Swan privately assumed the entire United States French debts at a slightly higher interest rate. Swan then resold these debts at a profit on domestic U.S. markets." I didn't find that description clear.

    I think what it meant was that he would pay down the entire debt to France, provided the US Government agreed it would make payment of that amount, to him.

    There was at least one mystery I didn't see covered in the wikipedia article. Where did he get the funds to pay down the debt to France? Swan himself had been deeply in debt, just a few years prior to paying off the debt to France. If he really had got the massive funds to pay down that debt, he could have retired and lived off the interest payments. But, apparently he died a debtor.

  • (1) So, port the long wikipedia version? (2) Or, now that I know the wikipedia has a long, but flawed version, write a new version for Citizendium? Or (3) abandon work on James Swan, let sleeping dogs lie, and request deletion?
  • I couldn't decide. I should have marked this with a __NOINDEX__. Sorry.
  • Can I think about it for a couple of days?
Cheers! George Swan (talk) 11:23, 14 August 2022 (CDT)
Certainly! Think away :-) Pat Palmer (talk) 13:13, 14 August 2022 (CDT)
Thanks for the grace period. I am going to put my energy elsewhere. George Swan (talk) 12:06, 20 August 2022 (CDT)