Description:

George III of England King

2pp military broadside printed on bifold paper announcing that Britain would allow neutral trading ships to deliver agricultural supplies. The first page delivers George III’s instructions to British vessels, and the second page constituted a “Form of Licence or Pass” that would be completed by the neutral trading ship. In near fine condition, with minor overall toning and isolated foxing found mostly on the second page. A few wrinkles and a minor tear to the right edge. Each page measures 7.75” x 12.625”.

On July 21, 1798 from the Court of Saint James’s, George III as "George R" instructed “Our Courts of Admiralty … Commanders of Our Ships of War and Privateers” to abstain from attacking neutral trading vessels that would begin delivering indispensable agricultural and manufacturing supplies to Ireland that summer. This broadside announced the law already passed as an Order in Council on April 18, 1798. During ordinary times, Britain relied on India and Europe to provide them with grass seed, flax, and plant-based dyes. Now that Britain was “at present engaged in War” with some of these nations, Britain relaxed its rules by allowing neutral ships to enter their ports. Neutral vessels could “import, without Molestation” supplies if two conditions were met: if they had the proper paperwork, and if supplies were subsequently shipped within three months of delivery at port.

Flax and flax-seed were used to make linen, one of the mainstays of the pre-Industrial Revolution English economy. Barilla referred to either salt-tolerant plants like seaweed, saltwort, glasswort, or mangrove, or its finished product salt ash, used to enrich soil. Madder was a red dye derived from the rubia plant.

This broadside dates from the middle of the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802), when Britain and its allies Austria, Spain, Germany, and Russia clashed with post-Revolutionary France. Britain faced off against France directly as well as indirectly, and militarily as well as economically. France harassed Britain by instigating political unrest in the British imperial holdings of Southern India and Ireland, which resulted in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the Irish Rebellion respectively. In addition, especially after 1805, Napoleon implemented the so-called Continental System, by which he attempted to weaken Britain economically by isolating it.

The Napoleonic Wars would have consequences in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Both Britain and France, in attempting to enforce their wartime economic policies, alienated neutral countries. Relations between Britain and neutral parties the United States, Russia, and Denmark were severely strained, resulting in war with two of them.

George III (1738-1820) assumed the throne following the late October 1760 death of his grandfather George II (1683-1760). During George III’s sixty-year-long reign, he confronted the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the latent growth of nationalism and other independence movements. He also endured periodic mental instability, possibly caused by the genetic disorder porphyria, and two assassination attempts.

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