Louisiana Purchase Treaty: Language and Communication Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Document.Article.Sentence)

Quote #4

It is agreed that the Dollar of the United States Specified in the present Convention shall be fixed at five francs 3333/100000 or five livres eight Sous tournois. (C1.3.1)

Talk about being culturally sensitive (and smart with money). Knowing that exchange rates change and that whatever $1 is worth today might change tomorrow, our boys wrote up this convention to seal in a certain exchange rate for debts due. This ensured that both parties knew exactly what the financial deal was. If that's not a great example of communicating across languages, we don't know what is.

Quote #5

In faith of which, the respective Ministers Plenipotentiary have signed the above Articles both in the french and english languages, declaring nevertheless that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and written in the french language, to which they have hereunto affixed their Seals. (C2.13.2)

Note: the names of languages aren't capitalized in France the way they are in the United States. So even though this sentence (and its friends in the treaty and first convention) has been translated into English, it looks like a little bit of Frenchiness is still hanging around.