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Independent of our newly acquired political character, circumstances arose in Europe, by which a new and extensive field was presented for our commercial enterprize. The most memorable of revolutions was commenced in France, in 1789; the wars, consequent to that event, created a demand for our exports, and invited our shipping for the carrying trade of a very considerable portion of Europe; we not only carried the colonial productions to the several parent states, but we also became the purchasers of them in the French, Spanish and Dutch colonies. A new era was established in our commercial history; the individuals, who partook of these advantages, were numerous; our catalogue of merchants was swelled much beyond what it was entitled to be from the state of our population. Many persons, who had secured moderate capitals, from mechanical suits, soon became the most adventurous. The predominant spirit of that time has had a powerful effect in determining the character of the rising generation in the United States. The brilliant prospects held out by commerce, caused our citizens to neglect the mechanical and manufacturing branches of industry; . . . so certain were the profits on the foreign voyages, that commerce was only pursued as an art; all the knowledge, which former experience had considered as essentially necessary, was now unattended to; the philosophy of commerce, if I am allowed the expression, was totally neglected; the nature of foreign productions was but little investigated by the shippers in the United States; the demand in Europe for foreign merchandise, especially for that of the West Indies and South America, secured to all these cargoes a ready sale, with a great profit. The most adventurous became the most wealthy, and that without the knowledge of any of the principles which govern commerce under ordinary circumstances. No one was limited to any one branch of trade; the same individual was concerned in voyages to Asia, South America, the West Indies and Europe. Our tonnage increased in a ratio, with the extended catalogue of the exports; we seemed to have arrived at the maximum of human prosperity; in proportion to our population we ranked as the most commercial nation; in point of value, our trade was only second to that of Great Britain.

We have no trading companies under the authority of the United States. The occupations here are voluntary; it is very common for persons to change their pursuits frequently; foreigners enjoy the same commercial privileges as the citizens of the United States, except, that aliens cannot, in the whole or in part, be the owners of American vesssels.

H. Tonnage in Foreign and Coasting Trade, 1789-18151

The steady growth of the American merchant marine during the period under review “has no parallel," according to Pitkin, "in the commercial annals of the world." A great stimulus was given to our carrying trade and foreign commerce by the absorption of the European nations in the Napoleonic wars.

The following is the amount of tonnage from 1789 to 1815 inclusive, with its employment, in the foreign trade and coasting trade:

V. INTERFERENCE WITH NEUTRAL TRADE

A. Growth of the Neutral Trade, 1791-18162

As the French navy was unable to protect her own merchant vessels, the French government opened her West Indian ports to American ships, which began to carry

1 A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America. By Timothy Pitkin (2d edition, New York, 1817), 425-9, passim.

2 A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America. By Timothy Pitkin (2d edition, New York, 1817), 36–7.

her colonial products to France. To this trade England objected, whereupon the American vessels trading with the West Indies touched first at an American port and took out new clearance papers before proceeding on their journey to France. The growth of this indirect carrying trade may be studied in the fourth column of the table.

The whole value of exports in each year, from 1790 to 1816, and the value of those of domestic and foreign origin, since 1803, was as follows:

B. Frauds of the Neutral Flags, 18051

The evasion of the English prohibitions upon American trade between the French colonies and France aroused considerable bitterness in England and led

1 War in Disguise; or, the Frauds of the Neutral Flags. By James Stephen (London, 1805), 40-121, passim.

eventually to the Orders in Council. The British case against America was forcibly stated by Stephen, an English barrister. His book excited a great deal of attention and was probably an important factor in leading to reprisals against our commerce by Great Britain.

From these causes it has naturally happened that the protection given by the American flag, to the intercourse between our European enemies and their colonies, since the instruction of January, 1794, has chiefly been in the way of a double voyage, in which America has been the half-way house, or central point of communication. The fabrics and commodities of France, Spain, and Holland, have been brought under American colours to ports in the United States; and from thence re-exported, under the same flag, for the supply of the hostile colonies. Again, the produce of those colonies has been brought, in a like manner, to the American ports, and from thence re-shipped to Europe. .

It seems scarcely necessary to shew, that, by this practice, the licence accorded by the British Government was grossly abused. . . .

By the merchants, and custom-house officers of the United States, the line of neutral duty in this case was evidently not misconceived; for the departures from it, were carefully concealed, by artful and fraudulent contrivance. When a ship arrived at one of their ports to neutralize a voyage that fell within the restriction, e. g. from a Spanish colony to Spain, all her papers were immediately sent on shore, or destroyed. Not one document was left, which could disclose the fact that her cargo had been taken in at a colonial port: and new bills of lading, invoices, clearances, and passports were put on board, all importing that it had been shipped in America. Nor were official certificates, or oaths wanting, to support the fallacious pretence. The fraudulent precaution of the agents often went so far, as to discharge all the officers and crew, and sometimes even the master, and to ship an entire new company in their stead, who, being ignorant of the former branch of the voyage, could, in case of examination or capture, support the new papers by their declarations and oaths, as far as their knowledge extended, with a safe conscience. Thus, the ship and cargo were sent to sea again, perhaps within eight and forty hours from the time of her arrival, in a condition to defy the scrutiny of any British cruizer, by which she should be stopped and examined in the course of her passage to Europe. . . .

our prize courts . . . finding themselves to have been deceived for years past by fallacious evidence, have resolved to be cheated in the same way no longer. It is on this account only, and

the consequent capture of some American West Indiamen supposed to be practicing the old fraud, that we are accused of insulting the neutral powers, of innovating on the acknowledged law of nations, and of treating as contraband of war, the produce of the West India Islands. . . .

The worst consequence, perhaps, of the independence and growing commerce of America, is the seduction of our seamen. We hear continually of clamours in that country, on the score of its sailors being pressed at sea by our frigates. But when, and how, have these sailors become Americans? By engaging in her merchant service during the last and the present war; and sometimes by obtaining that formal naturalization, which is gratuitously given, after they have sailed two years from an American port. If those who by birth, and by residence and employment, prior to 1793, were confessedly British, ought still to be regarded as his Majesty's subjects, a very considerable part of the navigators of American ships, are such at this moment; though, unfortunately, they are not easily distinguishable from genuine American seamen.

It is truly vexatious to reflect, that, by this abdication of our belligerent rights, we not only give up the best means of annoying the enemy, but raise up, at the same time, a crowd of dangerous rivals for the seduction of our sailors, and put bribes into their hands for the purpose. We not only allow the trade of the hostile colonies to pass safely, in derision of our impotent warfare, but to be carried on by the mariners of Great Britain. This illegitimate and noxious navigation, therefore, is nourished with the life blood of our navy.

C. British Orders in Council and French Decrees, 1803-18081

During the Napoleonic wars from 1793 to 1803 the carrying trade with Europe had fallen into the hands of the people of the United States, who were the only neutral nation of commercial importance. The profits from this trade, from ship-building, and from the production and exportation of foodstuffs, had been enormous. But, in their efforts to hurt each other, England and France interfered seriously with this trade and disregarded our rights as neutrals. The following report sums up briefly some of these injuries.

1 Report of a Committee of the United States Senate on the Negotiations with Great Britain. American State Papers, Series Foreign Relations (Washington, 1832), III, 220-219*.

For memorials from the merchants of New York and Philadelphia in 1805, see Ibid., II, 737-41; and for the documents of all the orders and decrees, see Ibid., III, 262-94.