It was decided that the latter should receive all possible support short of an actual break with England; and to this end a Frenchman named Beaumarchais was furnished with money to establish a business house which should supply the colonists with warlike stores.

France gave a million francs, to which Spain added an equal sum, and Beaumarchais was allowed to buy from government arsenals.

Meanwhile agents were received from the United States, and French officers passed into its service with little real hindrance from their government.

Beaumarchais' house was started in 1776; in December of that year Benjamin Franklin landed in France, and in May, 1777, Lafayette came to America.

Meanwhile the preparations for war, especially for a sea war, were pushed on; the navy was steadily increased, and arrangements were made for threatening an invasion from the Channel, while the real scene of the war was to be in the colonies.