9.01.2003
According to sources at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson made a visit to Turin, Italy, in April 1787, 14 years before he became President of the United States but just two years before he became the first secretary of state. After spending a few days in the city to visit museums and galleries, he drove out to the rice regions of Piedmont and Lombardy, making excursions to places such as Moncaglieri, Stuponigi, and Superga to study the fields. Then, en route to Milan, he studied the rice fields between Vercelli and Pavia. There he stopped to talk to owners, as well as interview peasants who were working in the fields. He learned about the husking machinery and later sketched it from memory.
It was during this trip to Italy that Thomas Jefferson discovered that Piedmont rice was a species superior to rice grown in the U.S. and could be husked by machine. Jefferson informed Edward Rutledge in rice-growing South Carolina of this. And although �taking unhusked rice out of Italy to a place where it could be used to plant a crop in competition to the Piedmont was a crime punishable by death,� Jefferson told him he was �determined to take enough to put you in seed.� He told Rutledge that he knew the rice�s exportation in the husk was prohibited, but he bribed a muleteer to run a couple of sacks across the Apennines to Genoa, where it could then be taken by boat to Nice.
Just in case the muleteer wasn�t successful, Jefferson decided to �bring off as much as my coat and surtout pockets would hold.� He later shipped this contraband rice off to Rutledge. �His pockets stretched as he carried out daring agricultural espionage.� And because of Jefferson�s impromptu trade mission to the rice country, he could no longer go to Rome to see the ruins of antiquity�the original objective of his trip.
THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS A SMUGGLER!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA (he only did it once, i think)
cbox
It was during this trip to Italy that Thomas Jefferson discovered that Piedmont rice was a species superior to rice grown in the U.S. and could be husked by machine. Jefferson informed Edward Rutledge in rice-growing South Carolina of this. And although �taking unhusked rice out of Italy to a place where it could be used to plant a crop in competition to the Piedmont was a crime punishable by death,� Jefferson told him he was �determined to take enough to put you in seed.� He told Rutledge that he knew the rice�s exportation in the husk was prohibited, but he bribed a muleteer to run a couple of sacks across the Apennines to Genoa, where it could then be taken by boat to Nice.
Just in case the muleteer wasn�t successful, Jefferson decided to �bring off as much as my coat and surtout pockets would hold.� He later shipped this contraband rice off to Rutledge. �His pockets stretched as he carried out daring agricultural espionage.� And because of Jefferson�s impromptu trade mission to the rice country, he could no longer go to Rome to see the ruins of antiquity�the original objective of his trip.
THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS A SMUGGLER!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA (he only did it once, i think)
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