Description:

Adams John

John Adams Signs a Ship Passport for Export to Tranquebar, the First Danish Trading Post in India

 

Single page, bi lingual ship passport, written in English and Dutch, 8.25" x 10.25." Dated "March 1st, 1799" and signed with a large 3" signature by John Adams as President "John Adams." Countersigned by Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State. Professionally backed using an acid free backing for stability. Uneven toning. Please note that we feel it is quite possible that the toning bands can be removed based on other documents that had similar toning. An affordable example of an increasingly scarce autograph.

 

An important document to the then booming trade port of Danish India, Tranquebar. Tranquebar was the first Danish trading post in India established in 1620, situated on the Coromandel Coast in the Nagapattinam.

 

The document states that permission was given to "Samuel Chase, master or commander of the ship called the Agenoria …. lying at present in the port of Newport, bound for  Tranquebar and laden with staves, Nankeen (a cloth), boards, plank, dried and pickled fish, cheese, Vinegar, dry goods, snuff to depart and proceed with his said ship on his said voyage … "

 

The first trading company to India, the Danish East India Company, was set up and went bankrupt in the early 1600s.  It took more than a hundred years for its successor, the Danish Asiatic Company, to establish trade in earnest, and additional trade outposts were established in India. Starting in the late 18th century, trade with India was gradually opened, while administration remained under the Crown. A brisk trade in Indian cloth developed soon after the end of the American War of Independence in 1783 and continued to flourish.

For the period 1795-1805, U.S. trade with India well exceeded trade with all European nations combined for all commodities (Furber 1938:258). Cloth was the centerpiece of this trade: The piece goods imported in 1804-05, for instance, were about three times the value of all other goods from India, chiefly sugar, indigo, ginger, and a variety of spices and drugs (Bhagat 1970:42). Ironically, this trade was doomed before it began by the rapid growth and spread of the industrial revolution. After centuries of supplying the world with cotton textiles (and to a lesser extent, silk textiles), India was soon to become an importer of cloth manufactured in the West.

 

In the middle of this active trade period, Alexander Hamilton, acting Secretary of Treasury,  was already proposing Tariffs on imports.  Hamilton calculated that the United States required $3 million a year for operating expenses as well as enough revenue to repay the estimated $75 million in foreign and domestic debt. Under the rates established by the Tariff of 1789, the government could not meet its obligations. Consequently, Hamilton proposed an increase in the average rate from 5 percent to between 7 and 10 percent, the addition of numerous items to the list, and the passage of an excise tax. Congress refused to pass the excise tax, but James Madison successfully steered the tariff increases through the legislature. The Tariff of 1816 (also known as the Dallas tariff) is notable as the first tariff passed by Congress with an explicit function of protecting U.S. manufactured items from overseas competition. Interestingly Tariffs on foreign imports still remains a hot topic in today's political theater.

 

A fantastic, important document, with the scarce signature of John Adams.

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