Important financier who signed the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution (1734-1806). Partly-printed DS, signed “Rob. Morris,” one page, 9.25 x 4, September 29, 1783. Desirable document issued at the Office of Finance, Philadelphia, in part: "Ninety Days after Sight of this fourth Bill of Exchange; first, second and third, of the same Tenor and Date unpaid, pay unto Mr. Will'm Bell or Order, Ten Thousand Guilders Dutch current Money, Value here received on account of the United States of America, and charge the same." Boldly signed at the conclusion by Robert Morris as the Superintendent of Finance. In fine condition. This example dates to mere weeks after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War.
Exchanges of this type were the method used when unpredictable modes of transportation were used to ship the exchange forms domestically and abroad, often on multiple vessels in case of loss or capture. In nearly all cases with American bills of exchange such as this, the ‘First’ was usually paid, redeemed, or retired before any subsequent ones would be redeemed. Copious record-keeping was necessary and paying out a rich sum like this was taken seriously at all points of potential redemption. Additionally, such instruments were issued to pay the interest of the domestic debt of the United States and to allow it to draw on its gold reserves in Europe to raise immediate specie in order to purchase supplies and prosecute the War for Independence. Such bills of exchange ‘were the eighteenth-century equivalent of modern checks; they enabled persons having funds available in other places to raise money for local use’ (Edgar J. McManus, in American National Biography).
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