I was in the process of dreaming up my next Entertainment Trivia puzzle, when I realized what day it was, and thought it might be fun to have a Presidential Trivia Fest. If you have a good tidbit about one of or Presidents, or his administration, feel free to post one yourself. So, let me kick this off:

Prior to his election, this President’s many exploits included smuggling this/these.

Oops, forgot that my power is going off for a few hours shortly. carry on without me. 🙂

Update: Back online. No guesses yet? Wow!

The Answer! It’s commonly taught in most lower division US history classes that, in April of 1787, while Jefferson was Minister to France. he traveled across the Alps by foot and mule to investigate Piedmontese rice – the finest rice in Europe. The details, however, are less well known.

He thought the quality of Piedmontese rice was do to a superior hulling machine. On his arrival, he found their machines to be the same as used in France. But the actual strain of rice grown there was superior. When he inquired about seed rice, he found that its export from Savoy-Piedmont (if you’ll recall, this was before the unification of Italy) was illegal, and punishable by death. So, upon leaving Piedmont, he stuffed all he could in his pockets and smuggled it out.

Also, in his travels, he negotiated direct shipment of rice, tobacco, whale oil and other American products. As our newly independent nation was still quite dependent upon the British mercantile system. For a really good write-up on the demise of the rice trade at Cowes (from a British perspective) check this out.