and on her terms and were forbidden to establish any manufactures incompatible with her view of gain. In future the whole world will be open to us, and we shall be at liberty to purchase from those who will sell on the best terms and to sell to those who will give us the best prices." These hopes were not immediately realized. The nonintercourse policy had involved merchants and shipowners in financial embarrassment. Parliament's prohibition of American trade, first with foreign countries and then with the British dominions, had been rigorously enforced by an effective navy, and commercial ventures were abandoned because the risks were greater than the chances of profit. Many merchants took out letters of marque and reprisal and armed their vessels. Maclay, Pt. I, Three or four hundred privateers rendered valiant service throughout the war, defending our coasts and attacking merchantmen and men-of-war flying the Union Jack on the high seas. Some six hundred prizes fell to their share, and the prize money went far toward offsetting the losses of our merchant marine. Ch. IV-XVI. Pitkin, Hist. of U.S., II, 186. Marvin, Throughout the colonial period the major part of our transatlantic trade had been with Great Britain and the British West Indies. Independence deprived us of the commercial advantages hitherto accorded American vessels in British ports, and this commerce received a serious check. Pitt, the constant friend of America, proposed (1784) that the commercial relations between Great Britain and the United States be established on the principle of reciprocal benefit. American ships were to be admitted on the same terms as those of any independent nation, and the goods Ch. III. brought in should be subject only to such duties as were imposed on goods from the British colonies. This wise and liberal policy was set aside because protested by the English shipping interest. It was urged that American vessels, built more cheaply and manned more easily than were their British competitors, would soon secure the whole Atlantic trade, and that the United States was likely to become a more dangerous rival than Holland had been. British subjects were forbidden to purchase American-built ships. Not only were Sheffield, Am. Com merce, 1-6, 134-218. Sheffield, 107-132. Pitkin, II, Ch. XVII. American vessels classed as foreign under the Navigation Act, but the seceded territory was treated as thirteen distinct states, and an American vessel was excluded unless her cargo consisted of the products of the particular state where her owners resided. Even so our ships might transport to England only naval stores. These restrictions proved a severe blow to the carrying trade. In 1783 an order in Council denied American vessels access to the ports of the British West Indies under any conditions, and forbade the importation of fish, beef, and pork from the United States, even when carried in English ships. More than one third the vessels clearing from Boston and New York in the decade before the Revolution had sailed for these ports. Under the new regulations American merchants forfeited a trade worth $3,500,000 a year. To the planters of Jamaica and the Bahamas this arbitrary prohibition was nothing less than disaster. Fifteen thousand slaves died of starvation in the next four years. Other business interests experienced the ill effects of separation. Exports, such as indigo, naval stores, and pig iron, dwindled because of the withdrawal of the bounties formerly paid by the British government. In place of this stimulus, duties levied in the English ports actually checked the exportation of these articles. The shipbuilders, too, lost their best market, and the whalers were no longer on an equal footing with their British competitors. Free trade with the French and Spanish West Indies, with Europe and the Orient, could not immediately compensate American shipmasters and producers for the loss of the English market. The Congress of the Confederation attempted to negoHist. of U.S., tiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain that should secure more advantageous terms, but these overtures were rejected. British merchants were well content with the trade regulations enacted by their own government, and English statesmen openly denied the ability of Congress to enforce any commercial agreement upon thirteen unruly states. In other directions Congress was no more successful in protecting the commercial interests of American citizens. Spain claimed proprietorship in both banks of the Mississippi and, by consequence, the monopoly of trade along that important waterway. The attempt to negotiate a treaty giving American vessels equal rights failed. The settlers west of the Alleghanies bitterly protested the surrender of their only means of reaching a market, and plotted secession. Negotiations with other European courts came to little result. Said Washington, "We are one nation to-day, thirteen to-morrow, who will treat with us on these terms? Conflicting commercial legislation was the inevitable result of the diverse interests of the states. Massachusetts and New Jersey originally declared for free trade in the interests of commerce. Virginia continued to levy an export duty on tobacco and an import duty on liquors as the easiest means of securing a revenue. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New York, and eventually Massachusetts, laid heavy taxes on foreign luxuries, such as wines, tea, coffee, sugar, and coaches in the interest of revenue, and imposed duties on certain manufactures in order to protect domestic industries against English competition. New York and Pennsylvania discriminated against foreign (especially British) traders by doubling the duties on goods imported in British vessels. Interstate commerce, e.g. in tobacco, was subjected to imposts. The Atlantic coast was thus divided into thirteen distinct customs districts, each pursuing an independent policy. The state authorities not infrequently came into conflict as to the limits of their respective jurisdictions. Virginia and Maryland were at loggerheads over the navigation of the Potomac. Pennsylvania and Delaware disputed control of the Delaware River. Soon it became evident that Congress could not bring Spain and Great Britain to terms nor negotiate other commercial treaties without power to make and enforce uniform regulations. Development of Manufactures. -Independence put an end to the restrictions imposed by Parliament on American manufactures. Woolen cloth and beaver hats could now be sent to any market at home or abroad. Slitting mills, foundries, and steel furnaces might be erected without let Hill, First Stages in U.S. Tariff Policy, 490-527. Pitkin, Stat. View, Ch. II. Swank, U.S. Census, Bishop, I, 383-423. I, Ch. III. Weeden, II, 732-734. or hindrance. The nonimportation resolutions and the embargo combined to stop the inflow of foreign goods, and the special demands created by the war gave extraordinary stimulus to certain industries. Cannon, muskets, anchors, etc., no longer to be had from England, were wrought in the foundries of East Bridgewater, Canton, Springfield, and Easton, Massachusetts. Considerable steel was made into muskets at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and at Trenton, New Jersey. The Sterling works cast the guns for the battleship Constitution and the links of the iron chain that was stretched across the Hudson at West Point as a barrier against the British fleet. At the Principio works in Maryland, the English owners having lost control, cannon balls were cast for the use of the Continental army. The fact that the Washington family held one-twelfth interest in the plant may have determined this patriotic service. Salt was another necessity that had now to be produced at home, the supply from Portugal and the West Indies being cut off by the war. The salt works along the New England coast immediately doubled their capacity. Tanks for boiling the brine were set up at New Bedford and on the "back side" of Cape Cod. The salt wells of Onondaga County, New York, long known to explorers and pioneers, began to produce for the market in 1788. The textile industries experienced no slight advantage from the decade during which domestic manufactures had the monopoly of the American market. Clothing for the army as well as for ordinary wear was made up at home. Many a militiaman went to the war clad in a suit made of wool shorn from his own sheep, spun and woven and fashioned by the women of his household. Production on a scale to fill the place of the accustomed imports required. greater skill, better implements, and more raw material. Governor Colden of New York had reported to the Board of Trade in 1765 that "all the wool in America is not sufficient to make stockings for the inhabitants," but systematic effort had increased the supply to the point of meeting immediate need in the decade following. The |