British diplomacy at the close of the War of 1812 proved more successful than British armed strength. In a commercial convention framed after the Treaty of Ghent, the United States was persuaded to embark upon a plan of mis called reciprocity in which both governments bound themselves to grant no more preference to their own ships in the direct trade between American ports and the United Kingdom. At the same time, however, the British government craftily reserved to itself the West India trade and barred American ships out of all but direct trade with British East India possessions This costly defeat of American diplomacy was sharply resisted by national lawmakers, but the plea prevailed that the terms of the convention really bound the United States and must be con firmed by Congress. Immediately there came decline in the American merchant marine, and an increase in British maritime prosperity. Con ditions were nominally equal but actuaPy unequal, for British vessels could make tri angular voyages to the United States, to the West Indies and back to Europe, while Ameri can ships could not. American tonnage suffered further by the conclusion of so-called reciproc ity agreements with other maritime states of Europe, whose participation in our own carry ing trade greatly increased, and whose vessels it was discovered, could be operated at a lower cost because of the lower range of European wages.
But American shipowners did not abandon the uneven struggle. When they lost trade in the north Atlantic they turned to the North west coast, to the East Indies and to the mid Pacific archipelagoes. They built larger and swifter ships which could make three voyages while dull Europeans were making two. Amer ican registered shipping, which had fallen since the War of 1812 to 581,230 tons in 1819, rose steadily to 701,517 tons in 1827. In that year the London Times said: "It is not our habit to sound the tocsin on light occasions. but we conceive it to be impossible to view the existing wee! of things in this country without more than apt:wet:maxi am alarm. Twelve veers of peace. and what is the situation el Great Britain? The shipping interest, the cradle of our nary. is half ruined. Our commercial monopoly exists no longer; and thousands of our manufacturers are starving, or seeking redemption in distant lands. We have closed the Western Indies against America from feelings of commercial rivalry. Its active seamen have alreadyy engrossed an important branch of our carrying trade to the Eastern Indies. tier starred flag is now conspicuous on every sea, and will soon defy our thunder." Of this era Prof. J. R. Soley, the historian, has written: "In every respect we may say that this period (1820-28) represents the most flourishing condition of shipping in Ameri can history. Although since that time commerce has increased twelve-fold, and although in the year preceding the Civil War our registered tonnage was three times as large, yet we have never since 1830 reached the position in respect to the carrying trade to and from American ports that was maintained during this decade, but, on the contrary, have receded from it further and further." Success had made our national lawmakers too confident, for in 1828 Congress took another step in miscalled reciprocity by offering to abandon the preferential duty system, under which American shipping had grown so wonderfully, if competing foreign nations would do the same. This change resulted un
fortunately, American registered tonnage fall ing off from 757,998 in 1828 to 537,563 in 1830. Inland States, or those having no large owner ship of ocean carriers, had now come to dominate the policy of the American govern ment. British vessels, of which in 1830 only 78,947 tons had entered the United States, now rapidly increased to an average of 212,661 tons. While in the decade 1830 to 1840 American tonnage gained but 40 per cent in all the ports of the world, British tonnage in American ports increased nearly 300 per cent. In 1840 the proportion of American imports carried in American vessels had fallen to 82.9 per cent. Yet ship for ship American wooden vessels were still pre-eminent. Says the British histo rian, Grantham: " Previous to the development of steamships, the pre of shipping was falling rapidly into the hands of can shipowners. Thirty years ago one of the great objects of interest at the docks in Liverpool was the American safling packet, and it was considered that a stranger had missed one of the lions of the port who had not visited these celebrated ships. The same prestige was felt everywhere: on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in India, China, and in all the best trades American ships were most in demand." Errors of national policy in the too early reduction and abandonment of the preferential or protective policy of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison had hurt American shipping and checked its normal growth. But, on the other hand, the blunders of the law makers had been to a great extent retrieved by the persevering and progressive spirit of the shipbuilders, shipowners and seamen of the United States.
Steamers, Packets and Steam shipbuilding and navigation were first made practicable in America. The Clermont of Rob ert Fulton in 1807 was the first successful steam-driven craft. The Savannah in 1819 had made the first steam transatlantic passage. In 1823, when the steam merchant fleet of the United States was first enumerated, it had a total tonnage of 24,879— engaged almost en tirely in coast and river voyages. By 1833 our steam fleet had advanced to 101,306 tons, and by 1840 to 198,184 tons, of which only 4,155 tons were registered for foreign commerce. Moreover, American shipbuilders, contrary to frequent assertions, were quick to recognize the value of iron, and the first iron sea-going steamer, the Bangor, was built at Wilmington, Del., in 1844. Nevertheless, with all this spirit of energy and progress, American shipping faltered when it ceased to receive some degree of preference from its own government. Our shipping, still nearly all wood-built and sail, registered for foreign commerce stood at a tonnage of 904,476 in 1845—a handsome total but less than the 981,019 tons of 1810. The growth of our merchant shipping had fallen behind the growth of population. In 1810 the United States had owned 13.43 cubic feet of registered tonnage per capita. In 1845 it owned only 4.54 cubic feet per capita.