In 1781, Saint Georges's "Concert des Amateurs" had to be disbanded due to a lack of funding. Playwright and "Secret du Roi" spy Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais began to collect funds from private contributors, including many of the "Concert's" patrons, to send materiel aid for the American cause. The plan to send military aid via a fleet of fifty vessels and have those vessels return with American rice, cotton, or tobacco ended up bankrupting the French contributors as the American congress failed to acknowledge its debt and the ships were sent back empty. Saint-Georges turned to his friend and admirer, Philippe D'Orléans, duc de Chartres, for help. In 1773 at the age of 26, Philippe had been elected Grand Master of the 'Grand Orient de France' after uniting all the Masonic organizations in France. Responding to Saint-Georges's plea, Philippe revived the orchestra as part of the "Loge Olympique", an exclusive Freemason Lodge.