Pitkin, View U.S., received at the principal settlements of the British dominions in East India"; but the ports of the British West Indies remained closed for fifteen years longer, and maritime trade with Canada was under the ban until 1850. It is an open question whether we got more than we gave in this, and the reciprocity treaties subsequently negogiated with Sweden, the Netherlands, Prussia, Spain, the Hanseatic cities-Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck -Oldenburg, Sardinia, and Russia. During the following decade there was some increase in American tonnage engaged in foreign trade, but not in proportion to the increase in population and wealth. Tonnage per capita steadily declined. The volume of foreign commerce gained but slowly. The figures of 1806 and 1807 were not again reached until 1835. Notwithstanding British competition, our shipmasters managed to increase their proportion of transatlantic commerce for the first ten years of reciprocity. A line of fast-sailing packets was established between New York and Liverpool in 1816-1817 and another in 1821-1822. A third line plied to London and Havre after 1822, and a direct line to Havre after 1832. Our paramount advantages for the building of sailing ships enabled us to offer the most favorable terms, and thus for a time to monopolize foreign commerce under a régime of a free field and no favors. This advantage was largely done away with by the tariff of 1828, which imposed heavy duties on bolt iron, copper, canvas, hemp rope, etc., while offering no compensating protection to shipping interests. The British tonnage entering our ports was 78,947 in 1830, the year following it rose to 143,806, and the average for the decade 1830-1840 was 212,661. Under this keen competition freight rates fell disastrously. The proportion of foreign trade carried in American vessels dropped from 92.5 per cent in 1826 to 82.9 per cent in 1840. The real gainers from the reciprocity policy were not the shipowners but the farmers and planters, whose surplus products were sent to foreign markets at declining freight rates. The value of our cotton exports rose from $24,106,000 in 1816 to $36,846,000 in 1825, and $64,661,000 in 1835. During the same time the exports of wheat, flour, rice, and tobacco barely held their own, not because of any check in the foreign demand, but because all available soils were converted to cotton culture. The rice and indigo plantations of Georgia and South Michaux, Carolina were turned to the growing of Sea Island cotton; 344-346. the wheat fields of the "back country" were planted to the "green seed," or short staple variety. Produc- Hammond, tion increased from 156,000 bales in 1800 to 340,000 in 31-33, and Appendix. 1810, and 458,000 in 1816, and 606,000 in 1820. From one half to two thirds of the crop was exported. estimated that $40,000,000 was invested in cotton plantations, and that the planters cleared fifty per cent on their investment during the years of high prices. It was Am. Diplo macy, Ch. VIII. Henderson, Am. Dipl. Ch. IX. The Fisheries. - Another New England industry that McMaster, felt the ill effects of the war was the cod fishery. Free- IV, 457–469. dom to fish off the Grand Banks and in other Canadian Schuyler, waters had been fully conceded in the treaty of 1783. Our commissioners were instructed to secure an equivalent concession in the Peace of Ghent, but they failed to do so. The English government declared that this was a privilege, not a right, and that it had been abrogated by Questions, the war. The vexed question was adjudicated in 1818. 471-500. American fishermen secured the "liberty" to fish within Abbot, certain limited areas and to use such adjacent coasts as might be unsettled, for curing their fish. Populated bays Marvin, and harbors could be entered by our fishing smacks only Ch. XIII. when in need of shelter, repairs, wood, and water. The Canadians demanded that in return for these favors their fish should be allowed full entry into the United States. The fishing interest protested against throwing open our markets, and the war duties of one dollar a quintal on dried and eighty-five cents on pickled fish were retained. On the other hand, the Americans were not allowed to send fish into the British West Indies. The dispute engendered much bitter feeling and even led to violent contests between the rival parties. Bishop, Bagnall, I, Ch. X. Development of Manufactures At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in spite of the encouragement, legislative and otherwise, that had been given to manufactures, the United States was still in the main an agricultural nation. We were producing more both of food products and raw materials than were consumed in the country, and we could not provide manufactured commodities sufficient to supply the home market. In the natural course of trade, our exports of raw materials and food stuffs paid for the imports of manufactured goods. This was satisfactory to the shipping interest since it ensured profitable cargoes, to the farmer since it opened foreign markets for his produce, and to the consumer since he secured goods of the best quality at low prices; but it placed manufactures at a disadvantage. Cotton Manufactures. - The Embargo, the Nonintercourse Act, and the War of 1812 gave domestic manufactures a virtual monopoly of the home market for a period of seven years. The exclusion of English goods, now as during the Revolutionary War, threw the country upon its own resources. Commerce at an end, business enterprise turned to manufactures as the most promising available venture. Much of the capital withdrawn from shipping was invested in cotton mills. Slater's success at Pawtucket had demonstrated the possibilities of this new textile industry, and men trained under his eye went out to set up rival establishments. The mills at Slatersville, Rhode Island, Pomfret, Connecticut, and Union Village, New York, were direct offshoots from the "Old Mill.” For the first ten years development was slow. In 1804 four mills were in successful operation. When, however, English competition was excluded, an epoch of extraordinary progress opened. In 1807 there were fifteen cotton mills running 8000 spindles and producing 300,000 pounds of cotton yarn annually. In 1811 there were eighty-seven mills operating 80,000 spindles, producing 2,880,000 pounds of yarn per year and employing 4000 men, |