In the rapid growth of their commerce, the United States have enjoyed a most wonderful prosperity. We have, in a previous chapter, alluded to the restrictive measures adopted by the mother country, while we remained in colonial subjection, and it will not be necessary to enter into farther details on that subject. During the revolutionary difficulties, the traffic which had previously existed was of course suspended, and after the peace, commerce was still embarrassed with numerous impediments. These found their origin in the very nature of the confederation, and were inseparable from the confused and ineffective powers of such a political system. Congress had no power to impose any duties without the unanimous consent of the states, and it is apparent at once how entirely impossible it was, under such circumstances, to adjust a system that should be universally acceptable. The foreign articles on which Pennsylvania laid a duty, New Jersey admitted free; facility of smuggling from one of these states to the other was unavoidable from their situation.

The several states laid different rates of duty on foreign tonnage; in some, one shilling sterling per ton was imposed on vessels which in other states paid three shillings per ton. Such was the misunderstanding among the several states, that there were no general commercial regulations; nor could congress enforce any, while the opposition of any one of the states could prevent the passage of any act on the subject. The evil of this condition of affairs was flagrantly manifest, when, to provide a fund to discharge the public debt, and to pay the arrears of the revolutionary soldiers, it was proposed to congress, during the operation of the articles of confederation, to lay a duty of five per cent. ad valorem on all foreign merchandise imported, and the opposition of Rhode Island alone was sufficient to defeat the plan.

European nations gladly availed themselves of the embarrassed situation of our affairs, and labored to throw every obstacle in the way of our increasing commerce. They refused to negotiate commercial treaties; for even those nations which were ready to countenance our assertion of independence, were not ready to receive us as competitors and rivals in a struggle where their own interests were so deeply involved. The call for an amendment of the regulations on foreign trade, was one of the leading inducements to the change of the old confederation, and the new constitution embraced the necessary provisions for the establishment of a successful intercourse with foreign nations. Not long after the adoption of the new constitution, Mr.Jefferson, then secretary of state, proposed a liberal system of policy in relation to this intercourse. His report on the subject of our commercial relations at that period, contains a variety of interesting matter, which enables us to make a correct comparison between the condition of our trade at that period and its present very great increase. This report was prepared in the summer of 1792. The countries with which the United States had commercial intercourse at that period were Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, the United Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and their American possessions: and the articles of export, which constitute the basis of that commerce, with their respective amounts, were,

To descend to articles of smaller value than these, would lead into a minuteness of detail neither necessary nor useful to the present object.

The proportions of our exports, which went to the nations before mentioned, and to their dominions respectively, were as follows:

Our imports from the same countries were,

These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has been exhausted.

Our navigation, depending on the same commerce, will appear by the following statement of the tonnage of our own vessels, entering in our ports, from those several nations and their possessions, in one year; that is to say, from October, 1789, to September, 1790, inclusive, as follows

The report then goes on to describe the degree of favor with which each of the several articles of export is received in each of the nations mentioned, and the nature and extent of the restrictions which had been adopted by each government in reference to American commerce. It then proceeds to the investigation of the question, how may these restrictions be removed, modified, or counteracted? Two methods are suggested; first, by friendly arrangements with the several nations with whom these restrictions exist; or, secondly, by the separate act of our own legislatures for countervailing their effects. The views taken in this report have so important a bearing on many political subjects that have of late years agitated the country, and indicate so clearly the opinions of Mr.Jefferson in regard to the constitutional powers of Congress, in regulating commerce, that it seems not improper to present in this connection the following extracts:

‘Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of regulating laws, duties, and prohibitions, could it be relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the world; could every country be employed in producing that which nature has best fitted it to produce, and each be free to exchange with others mutual surplusses for mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be produced of those things which contribute to human life and human happiness; the numbers of mankind would be increased, and their condition bettered.

‘Would even a single nation begin with the United States this system of free commerce, it would be advisable to begin it with that nation; since it is one by one only, that it can be extended to all. Where the circumstances of either party render it expedient to levy a revenue, by way of impost, on commerce, its freedom might be modified, in that particular, by mutual and equivalent measures, preserving it entire in all others.

‘Some nations, not yet ripe for free commerce in all its extent, might still be willing to mollify its restrictions and regulations for us, in proportion to the advantages which an intercourse with us might offer. Particularly they may concur with us in reciprocating the duties to be levied on each side, or in compensating any excess of duty by equivalent advantages of another nature. Our commerce is certainly of a character to entitle it to favor in most countries. The commodities we offer are either necessaries of life, or materials for manufacture, or convenient subjects of revenue; and we take in exchange, either manufactures, when they have received the last finish of art and industry, or mere luxuries. Such customers may reasonably expect welcome and friendly treatment at every market. Customers, too, whose demands, increasing with their wealth and population, must very shortly give full employment to the whole industry of any nation whatever, in any line of supply they may get into the habit of calling for from it.

‘But should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it may better find its advantage by continuing its system of prohibitions, duties, and regulations, it behoves us to protect our citizens, their commerce and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties, and regulations, also. Free commerce and navigation are not to be given in exchange for restrictions and vexations, nor are they likely to produce a relaxation of them.

‘Our navigation involves still higher considerations. As a branch of industry, it is valuable, but as a resource of defence, essential.

‘Its value, as a branch of industry, is enhanced by the dependence of so many other branches on it. In times of general peace, it multiplies competitors for employment in transportation, and so keeps that at its proper level; and in times of war, that is to say, when those nations who may be our principal carriers, shall be at war with each other, if we have not within ourselves the means of transportation, our produce must be exported in belligerent vessels, at the increased expense of war-freight and insurance, and the articles which will not bear that, must perish on our hands.’

The troubled situation of affairs in Europe exerted a very favorable influence on American commerce. The wars which followed in the train of the French revolution, created a demand for our exports, and invited our shipping for the carrying trade of a very considerable portion of Europe. American bottoms not only carried the colonial productions to the several parent states, but our merchants became the purchasers of them in the French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies. Anew era was established in our commercial history. Large numbers of individuals embarked in commercial enterprises, and the other departments of industry were comparatively deserted. The most adventurous became the most wealthy, and that, too, without any knowledge of the principles on which trade is usually conducted. No one confined himself to a single branch of business, but the same individual was concerned in voyages to the four quarters of the globe. Our tonnage increased with a rapidity proportioned to its demand; in proportion to our population, we ranked as the most commercial of nations; in point of value, our trade was second only to that of Great Britain.

This astonishing increase of commercial connections, and consequent accumulation of wealth, could not but excite the jealousy of European nations, and eventually occasioned a series of restrictive and prohibitory codes, on the part of England and France, at that time belligerent, by which the Americans, as a neutral power, suffered infinite damage. Indeed, between the years 1804 and 1807, inclusive, above one thousand American merchant vessels were captured by nations professedly at peace with the United States, for alleged breaches of blockade, or of commercial decrees. Under these circumstances, the government of the United States, at the close of the year 1807, resorted to an embargo, to prevent the destruction of the mercantile navy, which was continued till March, 1809. Thus the export trade of the United States, after having, in the course of sixteen years, from 1790 to 1806, acquired an augmentation of nearly ninety millions of dollars, was, in 1807, reduced by a single blow to the aggregate of twenty-two millions, four hundred and thirty thousand, nine hundred and sixty dollars, being only one million, six hundred and seventy-seven thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two dollars more than the amount in 1791, the second year after the organization of the present government. On raising the embargo, commerce at once revived, and during the years 1809 and 1810, the amount of exports, so far as related to domestic products, was greater than the average of the ten years from 1802 to 1812.

Subsequently to the declaration of war with Great Britain, the export trade of the United States was materially depressed, till, in the year 1814, it did not amount to seven millions of dollars. At the conclusion of the war, the exports rose in 1815 to fifty-two millions; in 1816, to eighty-one; in 1817, to eighty-seven; in 1818, to ninety-three. From 1819 to 1824, the amount ranged between sixty-five and seventy-five millions, the average being above seventy; but in 1825, the amount of exports again rose to nearly one hundred millions of dollars. From 1826 to 1830, the exports ranged from seventy to eighty millions; the exports of foreign goods have materially declined, the amount for 1830 being little more than fourteen millions, a smaller amount than any year since 1803, except those of the embargo and war, while the domestic exports are nearly sixty millions, an amount exceeding those of any preceding year, excepting the years 1816, ’17, ’18, and ’25.

The official accounts presented to congress divide the exports into four classes: products of the sea, the forest, agriculture, and manufactures. The following is a summary of the exports of the year 1830; the details of this and other years will be found in the tabular views at the end of the volume. The products of the sea, consisting of the results of the whale, cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries, exported mostly from the northern states, amount to one million, seven hundred and twenty-five thousand, two hundred and seventy dollars, being nearly a thirty-fifth part of the whole domestic exports. About one third of this value consists of codfish, and more than half of the products of the whale fisheries.

The value of skins, furs, ginseng, amber, staves, bark, tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine, and pot and pearl ashes, partly from the northern and partly from the southern states, which were formerly of much greater comparative importance, now constitutes nearly one fifteenth part of the whole value of domestic exports, and amounts to four millions, one hundred and ninety-two thousand, and forty dollars. Alarge proportion of the trade in these articles, as well as in those of codfish and bread stuffs, is carried on with the West Indies, Mexico, and South America. The skins and the furs go to Europe and Canton, the ginseng to Canton, and the pot and pearl ashes to France and England.

The chief amount of articles of export consist, as would naturally be supposed, of the products of agriculture. The article of cotton alone furnishes nearly half of the amount of the whole exports of the United States, being for the year 1830 twenty-nine million, six hundred and seventy-four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three dollars. The next important article of export is wheat, either as grain, flour, or biscuit; the amount being six million, three hundred and twenty thousand, six hundred seventeen dollars. The third in amount is tobacco, five million, five hundred and eighty-six thousand, three hundred and sixty-five dollars; the fourth, rice, one million, nine hundred and eighty-six thousand, eight hundred twenty-four dollars; the fifth, the produce of swine, including pork, bacon, and live hogs, one million, three hundred and fifteen thousand, two hundred and forty-five dollars. Three of the most important of these articles, cotton, tobacco, and rice, amounting collectively to thirty-seven million, two hundred and forty-eight thousand, and seventy-two dollars, are the produce of the southern states, including Virginia and Kentucky. The other agricultural exports, viz. beef, tallow, hides and cattle, butter, cheese, horses, mules, sheep, rye meal, oats, potatoes, and apples, flax seed, and hops, are mostly furnished by the middle and western states. Cattle and their products, including butter and cheese, amounted to eight hundred and sixty thousand, and fifty-three dollars. This species of export is of far less comparative importance than formerly, being limited to its present amount, not by the capacity for production, but by the extent of demand in the foreign markets. An increase of the foreign demand would soon double and treble the quantity. Some of the articles comprehended in the above list, though agricultural products, yet involve some process of manufacture; such, for example, as butter, cheese, bacon, flour, biscuit, meal, and part of the tobacco. Agreat many, however, of the exports coming under the head of manufactures, include in them the value of materials, such as the cotton fabrics, those of leather, and spirits distilled from grain: so that, on the whole, the strictly agricultural products of the country constitute a larger proportion of the whole exports than the tables represent; and if we add the value of materials supplied by agriculture for the manufactured exports, we shall have at least six sevenths of the whole domestic exportation consisting of the raw products of agriculture.

The total amount of manufactured articles exported from the United States in the year 1830, is estimated in the official returns at six million, two hundred and fifty-eight thousand, one hundred and thirty-one dollars, being rather more than one tenth of the domestic exports of the country; about nine hundred and thirty thousand dollars should, however, be struck out of this list, being gold and silver coin, consisting mostly of metals coined at the mint, and again exported. The labor put upon these materials in coining is so inconsiderable a part of their value, that the amount of coin of the country exported ought not to be included in the estimate of the value of manufactured exports. Of the articles exported on which the arts of the United States are employed, the most considerable are cotton twist, thread, and fabrics, the exported value of which, for the year 1830, was one million, eight hundred and thirteen thousand, one hundred and eighty-three dollars, being more than one fiftieth part of the whole domestic exports, the principal markets of which are South America, Mexico, and the Mediterranean.

The value of leather and its various manufactures, exported, is three hundred and seventy-five thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars. Hats exported the same year amount to three hundred and nine thousand, three hundred and sixty-two dollars, a very large sum, considering the short period during which this article has been sent to foreign markets. Soap and candles have long been supplied for the foreign markets, but have lately been on the decline, the amount for the year 1830 being six hundred and nineteen thousand, two hundred and thirty-eight dollars; and for 1831 only about twenty-five thousand dollars more. The various articles manufactured for the most part of wood, such as furniture, or of wood, leather, and iron, such as coaches and carriages, besides various agricultural implements supplied to the West Indies and South America, constitute an important branch of trade. The American glass begins to appear in the foreign markets; the value sent abroad in 1830, was sixty thousand, two hundred and eighty dollars; in the next year it was nearly doubled, and it bids fair to be still increased. The other exports consist of a variety of articles in small quantities, among which are wearing apparel, combs and buttons, brushes, fire engines and apparatus, printing presses and types, musical instruments, books, maps, paper and stationery, and trunks. It is apparent from the above enumeration and estimates, that the manufactured articles of which the export is the most considerable and most flourishing are those of which the raw materials consist mostly of cotton, wood, and leather.

The foreign articles imported and again exported from the country during the year 1830, amounted to fourteen million, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand, four hundred and seventy-nine dollars. This transit trade consequently forms an important part of American commerce. The principal foreign articles exported are cottons, coffee and cocoa, sugar, tea, wines, and hardware.72

‘The tendency to the sea,’ says Mr.Cooper, in his Notions of the Americans, ‘which the American has manifested since the earliest of the colonial establishments, is, no doubt, to be ascribed originally to the temper of his ancestors. Nothing can be more absurd, however, than to argue, that although peculiar circumstances drew him on the ocean, during the continuance of the late and general hostilities, he will return to his fertile valleys and vast prairies, now that competitors for the profits of commerce and navigation are arising among the former belligerents. The argument implies an utter ignorance of history, no less than of the character and sagacity of a people who are never tardy to discover their individual interests. It is, notwithstanding, often urged with so much pertinacity, as to savor much more of the conclusions of what we hope for, than of what our reason would teach us to believe. The fact is, there never has been a period, since society was first firmly organized in their country, when the Anglo-Americans have not possessed a tonnage greater, in proportion to their population and means, than that of any other people, some of the small commercial cities, perhaps, alone excepted. This was true, even previously to their revolution, when the mother country monopolized all of trade and industry that the temper of the colonies would bear, and it is true now, to an extent of which you have probably no suspicion. The present population of the United States may be computed at twelve million, while the amount of shipping materially exceeds one million four hundred thousand tons.73 Assuming that amount, however, it gives one ton to every eight and a half of the inhabitants. The tonnage of the British empire is, in round numbers, two million, five hundred thousand. This, divided among the twenty-three million of the British islands alone, would give but one ton to every nine of the inhabitants. In this calculation, the vast difference in wealth is forgotten. But by the British empire, we are to understand Canada, the West Indies, and all the vast possessions which are tributary to the wealth and power of that great nation. Iknow not whether the shipping employed in the East Indies ought to be enumerated in the amount named. If it is, you will see the disproportion in favor of America is enormous. But assuming that it is not, it becomes necessary to add several millions for their other dependencies. There is, however, still another point of view in which this comparison should, with strict justice, be made. Alarge proportion of the people of the United States are so situated, that in the nature of things they cannot turn much, if any, of their attention to navigation. If the slaves and the inhabitants of the new states, where the establishments are still too infant, to admit of such a development of their resources, be deducted from the whole amount of the population, it will not leave more than seven million of souls in possession of those districts in which navigation can be supposed at all to exist. The latter, too, will include all those states that are called interior, where time has not been given to effect any thing like a natural division of the employments of men. The result will show, that the Americans, relatively considered, are addicted to navigation, as compared with Great Britain, in the proportion of more than seven to five; nor has this commercial, or rather maritime spirit, arisen under auspices so encouraging as is generally imagined.

‘The navigation laws, adopted by the United States, so soon as their present constitution went into operation, are generally known. Their effect was to bring the shipping of the country into instant competition with that of foreign nations, from the state of temporary depression into which it had been thrown by the struggle of the revolution. From that hour, the superiority enjoyed by the American, in cheapness of construction, provisions and naval stores, aided by the unrivalled activity, and practical knowledge of the population, put all foreign competition at defiance. Of six hundred and six thousand tons of shipping employed in 1790, in the foreign trade of the country, not less than two hundred and fifty-one thousand tons were the property of strangers. In 1794, while the trade employed six hundred and eleven thousand tons, but eighty-four thousand tons were owned by foreigners. In 1820, (a year of great depression,) the trade gave occupation to eight hundred and eighty thousand tons, of which no more than seventy-nine thousand tons were foreign property. This estimate, however, includes the intercourse with the least, no less than that with the most maritime nation. The trade between the United States and England, which is the most important of all, in respect of the tonnage, it employs, was about three to one, in favor of the former; with other countries it varies according to the maritime character of the people, but with all and each it is altogether in favor of the United States.’