Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 18 x 15, March 18, 1797. Four-language ship's pass issued to "John Moulton, master or commander of the Brig called Nancy…lying at present in the port of Charleston, bound for Cowes & a Market, and laden with Rice." Neatly and prominently signed at center in ink by President John Adams, and countersigned by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering. The affixed white paper seals remain intact. Handsomely archivally double-matted and framed with an engraved portrait (bearing a facsimile signature) to an overall size of 29 x 20. In fine condition, with multiple intersecting folds.
During the 18th century, Cowes, seaport town on the Isle of Wight, became the main entry port for rice shipments between the British colony of Carolina and the rest of Europe—a trade that came to a crashing halt with the onset of the American Revolution. In 1781, historian and politician Sir Richard Worsley, in his History of the Isle of Wight, observed: 'Before the defection of the American colonies, from thirty to fifty vessels loaded with rice annually arrived at Cowes, from South Carolina and Georgia; their cargoes were from twenty-two thousand to thirty-five thousand barrels, or from five thousand to eight thousand tons of that grain; besides deer skins, staves, indigo, pitch, tar, turpentine, and other articles of less consequence. The rice, after being landed, opened, skreened, and re-packed, was generally re-shipped on board the vessel in which it came, and carried to Holland, Germany, or some of the French ports in the Channel. This was a beneficial branch of business to the port of Cowes, which it has lost by the unfortunate separation above alluded to. Tobacco has also been landed in this port in the same manner, and for the same purpose, as rice; and this business would, in all likelihood, have greatly increased, had not the same unhappy circumstances put a stop to it.' As evidenced by this 1797 ship's passport, the rice trade between the Carolinas and Cowes had resumed by the turn of the century.
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