During the war of the revolution, the foreign commerce of the United States was very limited in amount, and conducted at great risk. In 1779, the insurance on specie imported from Europe was more than 50 per cent. In 1782, the rate of insu rance, at London, on ships to New York, with con voy, was 15 guineas per cent. With so much vigour was the war on the ocean prosecuted, that a state ment was made to parliament, in the year 1778, that 733 British ships had been taken by the Ame rican cruisers, and that though 47 of them had been released, and 127 retaken, the loss of the remaining 559 vessels, which were carried into port, appeared, from the best mercantile information, to amount to at least £2,600,000 sterling. The number of Ameri can ships captured at that time was said to be 904, which, at the moderate valuation of R2000 for each ship and cargo, would amount to R1,808,000.
The American fisheries were completely destroy ed. A clandestine commerce was, from the com mencement of the war, carried on with Holland, and, toward the end of it, a lucrative trade with the Havana :'but so much of the labour and the capital of the people were diverted from their old channels, that there was little surplus produce for foreign markets. What the husbandmen did not consume themselves, was insufficient to supply the wants of the contending armies. The prosecution of many arts and trades was suspended, from the impossi bility of obtaining raw materials; and much meat was spoiled, owing to the want of salt to preserve it. The last mentioned article was, at times, as high as eight dollars a bushel, and was, on an average, perhaps. as high as three or four dollars.
The return of peace found the Americans without shipping, and with a reduced commercial capital. Many of the labouring people had been cut off by the events of the war, and others had, while in the army, acquired habits which unfitted them for the pursuits of peace. In many parts of the country, the imprOvements on the farms had been destroyed. Through the operation of the continental money, and other causes, a new distribution of wealth had taken place; a distribution alike unfavourable to private happiness and public prosperity. Unprinci pled speculators revelled in luxury; while the hon est and the noble minded, who were the principal victims of the financial systems of the different go vernments, found it difficult to obtain the bare means of subsistence. Land speculations and speculations in the soldiers' certificates engaged the attention of many who had money. Time was required by those of the industrious classes who had not been entirely stripped of their property, to bring their farms into the condition in which they were before the war, or to re-establish themselves in their old avocations. Tender-laws and other measures, the plea for which was state necessity, had destroyed the confidence of' men in one another. The effects of the war con tinned to be felt for many years after the return of peace.
It was impossible that the country could, under such circumstances, furnish a great amount of com modities for exportation: but a brisk trade of im port from England immediately commenced. We
find Lord Sheffield, who wrote in au early part of 1783, before the articles of peace were signed, sta ting that the American market was absolutely glut ted with European products: and Mr. Pitkin esti mates the value of the goods imported into the United States from England, at eighteen millions in 1784, and at twelve millions in 1785.
The following is an account of the imports into England from the United States, and exports to the United States from that country, in sterling money, from 1784 to 1790, taken from the English custom house books, viz.
The British official value, it must be kept in mind, is, for most articles, much below the market value.
These importations were paid for, in part, out of a fund of gold and silver, which the expenditures of the British and French armies in the country had enabled certain individuals to accumulate dur ing the war.
Of the extent of our commerce with other coun tries, in the period that elapsed between the close of the war and the adoption of the federal con stitution, it is difficult to form an estimate. It must have been small, as we had little to sell, and the other European merchants were not willing to give as long credits as the British.
During this period, our foreign commerce was subject to various and uncertain regulations. The privileges of a trade to their West India colonies, which France and Spain had conceded during the war, were, soon after the return of peace, diminish ed, and, after that, in a manner abolished. The po licy of Great Britain, though founded on equally selfish principles, was more enlightened. She ad mitted " any unmanufactured goods and merchan dise, the importation of which was not prohibited by law (oil excepted), and any pitch, tar, turpen tine, indigo, masts, and bowsprits, being the growth or production of the United States, to be imported in British or American ships, upon paying the same duties as if imported from the British plantations," and allowed the same drawback on goods exported to the United States as on goods exported to her own colonies. By this act, pot and pearl ashes, bar iron, woods of every kind, and tar and pitch, being the produce of the United States, were more fa voured than the same articles of the growth of other foreign countries: but, by the same act, it was provided that the intercourse between the United States and the British West Indies, should be car ried on in British ships only, and restricted to an exchange of lumber, naval stores, hemp, and flax, and grain, on the one hand, for rum, sugar, molass es, coffee, cocoa nuts, ginger, and pimento, on the other. This allowed the Americans to purchase from the British West Indies, all the staple pro ducts of those islands, but did not allow them to sell to them any salt fish, salt beef, salt pork, and various other articles.