ART. III.-EARLY AND GROWING COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. In the following paper we shall hurriedly discuss the commerce of the United States, from the earliest authentic dates to the year 1833, and include a large number of interesting particulars, which have been overlooked by us, or been but slightly touched upon in previous articles. The period of 1833 is assumed as a very convenient one, for several reasons, among the chief of which is, that the elaborate statistics of Mr. Pitkins terminate there. When time admits, we shall, by examination of the year books of Congress, be able to bring down the subject with the same minuteness, to the present day, and furnish many important and valuable contrasts, &c.; but the reader, by reference to our last eight volumes, will find scattered under various heads, almost all the individual facts and particulars. We would point in confirmation to the article in vol. 1, on "The Origin and Progress of Commerce," and in vol. 2, on “The Progress of American Commerce," &c. The discovery of America, and its subsequent colonization, gave an impetus to the commercial operations of Europe, which has been enlarging ever since. It is impossible to describe, in language sufficiently strong, the important bearings of this event upon the history and prospects of mankind. The colonies of Great Britain in particular, as we may gather from the terms of the charters accorded them, were intended at the earliest period, as the poles of an extensive commerce which was to be added to the empire; and considering the character of the earliest emigrants, hardy, bold, enterprising, conversant with the general principles and advantages of trade by their education in so considerable a trading nation as Britain, and the character of the country they were peoplingextensive seaports, great and innumerable rivers, admirable bays and harbors, fertile soil, and favorable climate-this intention could by no means have appeared unreasonable.* Time has shown that the most enthusiastic expectations fell infinitely short of the reality. With the struggles of the early colonists against man and nature, we all are familiar. A season of long probation had of necessity to be endured, and it served to form that hardy and resolute character which even yet adheres to their descendants. The New England pilgrims were the first, from their barren shores and rock-bound coasts, to go down to the sea, and assay its great perils. To this hardy, daring, and inimitable people, the boons of nature were to be found in the apparent denial of them all. Upon the pathless deep they are described in eastern gorgeousness, in the oratory of Burke, struggling at either pole, amid tumbling mountains of ice, in the frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis' Straits, beneath the arctic circle, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Few particulars can be offered of the commerce of the seventeenth century. We know that in 1647 a trade had been opened from the northern ports to Barbadoes and others of the West Indies; that a collector of customs was appointed at Charleston in 1685, and that the . Seybert, 54. hardy enterprises of the Nantucket whalemen received their first impulse in 1690. At the opening of the eighteenth century, the gross value of the exports and imports of all the American colonies, in their trade with all the world, did not exceed £740,000 sterling, or about three and one half millions of dollars, a sum which does not much exceed the average annual trade of the single states of Maine and Vermont, which are never regarded among our foreign trading states at all. It is less than our export alone of fish, oil, and candles. A wider field began soon to appear. In 1731 parliament was petitioned to open the African trade to the Americans. The Pennsylvanians were already conducting profitable traffic in Surinam, Hispaniola, the West Indies, Canaries, and Newfoundland. "New England," said a chronicle of the times, " employs six hundred ships, sloops, &c., about one half of which sail to England." The eyes of the mother country came soon to be opened to the dangers which threatened her from these aspiring, daring, and refractory children across the ocean. Like Phaeton, they were stealing the horses of the sun, and unless arrested in their mad course, it was impossible to foresee the consequences. They had learned, too, to guide the reins of these horses. One may fancy the consternation in parliament. "The only use of colonies," said Lord Sheffield, "is the monopoly of their consumption, and the carriage of their produce." The same noble lord remarked, even after our independence, "It would hardly be the interest of the Americans to go to Canton, because they have no articles to send thither, nor any money. Nothing, nothing," declared their statesmen in parliament, can be more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies." One of the earliest acts of British jealousy and restriction was in 1730. and was aimed against the American trade with the Dutch and French colonies. This was followed up, in 1760, by the navigation act, which declared that certain specified articles of the produce of the colonies, and since known in commerce by the name of the "enumerated articles," should not be exported directly from the colonies to any foreign country, but that they should be first sent to Britain and there unladen, before forwarded to their final destination. What could be more preposterous and suicidal than such a proposition? The act of 1764 provided further, that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into the British plantations, but such as are laden and put on board in England, Wales, or Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in English-built shipping, whereof the master and two thirds of the crew are English. In 1770 Mr. Burke announced with high gratulation in the House of Commons, that "our trade with America is scarcely less now than we carried on at the beginning of the century with all the world. At the same period, Malachi Postlethwait, in an address to the parliament, remarked, "for if once a commercial union should take place between the British continental colonies and the islands, to a certain de • Seybert, and see his note. gree they might think it worth their while probably to hazard the loss of the British markets, for the sake of the gain arising from the general freedom of trade to all other parts of the world. What then may become of our British navigation, to and from America? When that is lost, will not all our revenues, arising from our present American imports, be annihilated? and what will be the state of the public credit of this nation, when such a catastrophe should ever happen?" The statistics of American commerce, from the opening of the century until the period of the Revolution, show a continued augmentation. During the troubles of that period, and of those which immediately preceded, some decline was of course inevitable. In 1771 the whole exports and imports of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, and Georgia, fell but little short of $30,000,000, having increased tenfold since the beginning of the century. The war being closed, and an immense national debt of $42,000,000 accumulated, exclusive of state indebtedness, Congress found it absolutely necessary to provide a system of revenue adequate to the exigencies of the country. Experience had shown that impost duties could alone be relied upon, and were in other respects the least objectionable mode of taxation. Under the articles of federation, such duties could only be levied by the states, who thus reserved to themselves the exclusive control over their commerce. This state of things was attended with the most awkward and embarrassing results, and seemed likely at once to destroy all the benefits of the independence which had just been realized. Congress was left without a revenue, and was paralyzed. Foreigners began to exhibit their jealousies of the growing republic, and hostility to its commerce. Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, rejected all overtures to enter into treaties of commerce with us.* Some of the states opened their trade free with all nations, thus holding out superior encouragements to their neighbors. New York, in this manner, laid the foundation of the empire she now maintains. From the free ports goods might be smuggled into other states. Tonnage duties in different states varied from one to three shillings sterling the ton. As early as 1781 Congress prayed for the power to levy a duty of five per cent. ad-valorem, upon imports, to be continued until the payment of the debt. A further power of regulating the commerce of the states, was moved for in the same body, and negatived there. The states refused even to grant the duty. In 1783 the proposition was again urgently renewed, limited to the term of twenty-five years, but was not carried into effect. The darkest period was now at hand. The country, it is maintained, was drained of specie by the extraordinary preponderance of the imports over the exports for several years, being often as three to one in regard to Great Britain. The interest of the debt was unpaid, public credit gone, the debt itself considered of little value, and sold to many of its original holders for about one tenth of its nominal value. Private credit was also much impaired. During the war, the collection of debts was in a great measure suspended, and on the return of peace, goods were * Marshall's Washington, p. 5, 182. What States refused, Seybert, p. 57. + Pitkins, p. 30. imported by many individuals far beyond their means of payment, and the courts were filled with suits against delinquent debtors. The importing states took advantage of their situation, and levied duties on imports for their own benefit, at the expense of the other states. "Thus burthened with public and private debts, and pressed with taxes, and with a scarcity of money, some of the states, in order to remedy the evil, had recourse to paper money and tender laws; and in one state there was an open insurrection, which threatened not merely the peace and existence of that state, but the peace and existence of the Union itself." Happily for the country, and for the interests of mankind, the wisdom of our fathers was adequate to the great emergency. A common danger suggested a convention of the states, which, after able, protracted, and patriotic deliberations, presented to the world the constitution, under which, for nearly three fourths of a century, we have prospered beyond all example. The hand of God should be marked in the result. Under this constitution, one of the first grants of power to Congress was that of regulating commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with the Indians. Soon after the establishment of the present government, Mr. Jefferson, then secretary of state, in an answer to a call of the House of Representatives, made a report, in which he proposed a liberal system of commercial policy. "Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of laws, duties, and prohibitions," he says, "it should be relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the world. Would even a single nation begin with the United States this system of free intercourse, it would be advisable to begin it with that nation."t We have already marked the origin and progress of the various commodities which have in the past, and still make up the sum of our export trade, whether the product of agriculture or manufactures. We propose now a review of the results of the American foreign commerce with all nations, since the formation of the government. Scarcely had we entered into the family of nations, than there opened in Europe the fearful drama of the French Revolution, which in its results seemed once again to have involved the world in chaos. The United States, preserving her neutrality, became the common carrier for all nations, conducted the commerce of their colonies, and supplied them from her own resources with the results of her industry. Never, in the history of the world, was there a more rapid and extraordinary prosperity. Every other art and pursuit seemed eager to merge itself into commerce. Capital poured into this channel. The principles of trade and all experience were set at defiance. No adventure could be too rash for success. However, gold crowned the efforts of the most ignorant operators. What wonder that we became a nation of merchants, or that in population the United States rose at once to the character of the first commercial nation in the world. "Fixed and permanent improvements were established throughout the United States," says Mr. Seybert; "the accumulated capital of our merchants enabled them to explore new sources of wealth; our cities were augmented and embellished; our *Pitkin's Statistics, p. 31. + We extract from Seybert. + Seybert. agriculture was improved, our population was increased, and our debt diminished. To exhibit in the most striking terms the state of things, we remark from the tables, that the total imports into the United States, from 1800 to 1808, eight years, exceeded eight hundred millions of dollars; whereas in the eight years ending with 1845, these imports did not reach nine hundred millions, though the population had augmented nearly threefold. The export of domestic produce in the first period is fully one half that of the second. The total exports were as seven hundred millions then to nine hundred millions now; and what is the most remarkable of all, the United States, in the first eight years of the present century, conducted an export trade in foreign goods three and a half times greater than they do at this moment. In the single year 1805 the trade was as large as in the six years ending with 1847 taken together. This prosperity in the infant Hercules of America awoke the keenest jealousy of European powers, and open hostilities. They began to impose annoying restrictions and interdictions, and other arbitrary acts, against which all protestation proved in vain. It seemed in despite of our most determined efforts, we must be involved in the conflicts of Europe. The spirit of the nation was aroused, and in despite of the opposition of the merchant classes an embargo was imposed in 1807, which was continued for two years. This had the effect of prostrating our commerce and was adopted as the sole remaining alternative of peace. The embargo said our Government, by teaching foreign nations the value of American commerce and productions, will inspire them with a disposition to practise justice. They depend upon this country for articles of first necessity, and for raw materials to supply their manufactories.* To show the extent to which we were preyed upon by the European powers, it is only necessary to consider the captures made of our merchantmen between 1803 and 1812 when we were said to be at peace with all nations. The captures were for alleged violations of various illegal orders and decrees. The list was made out by the Secretary of State and is far from being complete, nor does it exhibit in any degree our losses, which occured from delays &c. as well as from actual capture.† Captures by British, 917 vessels. French, 558 70 These spoliations were the subjects of after negotiations, viz.: with England, France, 1803, Florida Treaty, 1819. In 1809 non-intercourse with Great Britain and France was substituted for the embargo, which gave such offence to the latter that she immediately condemned millions of American property as lawful *Seybert. VOL. I. *Seybert, 76. |