GENERAL GROWTH OF EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. Table 44 indicates how the value of the export trade, inspired by the events enumerated above, rapidly advanced from slightly over $20,200,000 in 1790 to over $94,100,000 in 1801, how it was then depressed for a few years because of temporary peace in Europe, and thereafter rose again, reaching its climax in 1807 with a total of $108,343,000. TABLE 44.-Total foreign trade of the United States, 1790-1815.1 1792 512,000 1,753,000 19,012,000 28,688,000 29,200,000 1797 29,850,000 27,000,000 19,000,000 20,753,000 29,747,000 31,500,000 68,552,000 79,069,000 70,971,000 52,122,000 91,253,000 1801 1802 47,473,000 46,642,000 94,115,000 64,721,000 111,364,000 1803 42,206,000 13,594,000 'Seybert, Statistical Annals, 93; DeBow, Statistical View of the U. S., I, 326; Pitkin, A Statistical View, 35. The most rapid growth and most violent fluctuations occurred in that portion of the export trade which consisted of the reshipment of foreign products. Being neutral, the vessels of the American flag were, with occasional interruptions, permitted to reexport to continental European countries and to England the large quantities of sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, pepper, and other tropical and subtropical articles and the gold and silver specie and bullion which American merchants obtained in the West Indies, South America, the Orient, and other parts of the world. In times of peace these articles were shipped directly from the producing countries to European destinations in foreign vessels. They were now shipped to American ports in American vessels, subjected to the payment of import duties, and then reshipped in American vessels after receiving a drawback of all but a small part of the duties that had been collected. This indirect process gave to the foreign cargoes thus reexported the stamp of neutrality. In the case of the British East India trade, the treaty of November 19, 1794, provided "that vessels of the United States shall not carry any of the articles exported by them from the said British territories to any port or place except to some port or place in America, where the same shall be unladen." In accordance with this treaty clause it was a common practice for American ships to proceed to the British East Indies, either direct from Europe (if the war permitted) or by way of an American port, and to return to Europe after having "unladen" their East India cargoes at an American port, paying the required import duties, receiving a drawback, and reshipping the temporarily unloaded cargoes. European and English products were also brought to American ports and reexported in American bottoms to the various outlying dominions of England and other European powers. In 1805, for example, the reexports of foreign products to the Spanish West Indies and American colonies of Spain were valued at $8,476,000, while the shipments of domestic commodities amounted to but $2,391,000.1 The value of the total reexport trade advanced from $539,000 in 1790 to $46,642,000 in 1801; it then declined for a few years while peace prevailed in Europe; but when the wars were resumed, it again increased, reaching a maximum of $60,283,000 in 1806. Never before or since has the reexport trade reached such proportions. As is shown in table 44, during many of these years it was greatly in excess of the entire foreign trade in domestic products. Though the export trade in purely domestic commodities increased less rapidly than the reexport trade, yet it also felt the favorable influence of the events enumerated above. From a value of $19,666,000 in 1790, the exports of domestic commodities rose to a value of $48,700,000 in 1807. Of the amount for the later year, $37,832,000 consisted of agricultural products, $5,476,000 of forest products, $2,804,000 of products of the sea, and $1,652,000 of manufactures. There were numerous changes in the relative importance of the commodities entering the export trade. In the North Atlantic States the products of the sea lost the lead to products of agriculture. Flour, wheat, corn, and provisions found a ready market in southern Europe, where crop failures were most frequent and the ravages of war most disastrous, and more than the usual shipments were made also to Holland, the Hanse Towns, England, and the West Indies. The exportation of fish to South European and West Indian markets continued, but the fish 'Seybert, Statistical Annals, 136. Corresponding figures in trade with French West Indies were $3,975,000 and $2,770,000, respectively. trade was not as large as the trade in agricultural products. Naval stores, furs, and skins likewise lost their former high position in the foreign trade of the North Atlantic States, but the losses occasioned by their decline were more than made good by the increase in the exports of the other important forest products-lumber and pot and pearl ashes. For lumber in particular a spirited demand arose on account of the European wars, the exports increasing steadily until in 1811, when they reached a value of $3,195,000 out of a total value of $5,286,000 for all the forest products exported that year. In the South the tobacco export trade continued to maintain an annual value of over $6,000,000. Southern rice also found a ready market in England, Holland, Bremen, and Hamburg, but the indigo trade of South Carolina and Georgia almost disappeared and the export trade in southern naval stores made little headway. A new southern export, however, a commodity destined to exercise a more potent influence on the economic and political history of the country than any other product of its soil, was making its first advance toward a position of importance in the foreign trade. This product was cotton. After the invention of the cotton-gin in 1793, the success of cotton production was so pronounced that by 1803 tobacco, which had been the great staple of the South for nearly two centuries, lost its leadership and cotton became the king of southern exports. It was shipped to Great Britain, France, Holland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Spain, and a few minor markets, the total exports rising from a value of $5,250,000 in 1802 to $15,108,000 in 1810, and $17,529,000 in 1815. Of all the events influencing the development of foreign trade during this period, none has contributed more to its permanent increase than the invention of the Whitney cotton-gin. The export trade continued to center very largely in the old Atlantic States which had always led in foreign commerce, but important changes in their relative position occurred. The paramount position of the Southern States of Virginia and Maryland was definitely yielded to the North Atlantic States of New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, however, which at the beginning of this commercial era led all the other States in the volume of exports, soon fell behind New York. During the period 1790 to 1800 the largest volume of exports was shipped from New York, which was followed by Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Virginia, in their respective order. During the next decade the position of these States remained unchanged, except that Pennsylvania lost precedence to Massachusetts.1 Meanwhile, after the year 1800, as was mentioned above, the farming regions beyond the Alleghenies, which had formerly shipped small 1Evans (compiler), Domestic Exports, 1789-1883, p. 98; DeBow, Statistical View of the United States (Compendium of U. S. Census, 1854), p. 187. quantities of farm and forest products to the Eastern States and occasionally to the West Indies, southern Europe, and the Mediterranean islands by way of New Orleans and Mobile,' became a more important factor in the export trade. The export trade of Tennessee and Mississippi dates from 1801, that of Kentucky and Indiana from 1802, of Michigan from 1803, Orleans Territory 1804, and Ohio 1806.2 The products of these newly opened regions had to be floated down the Mississippi River and be transshipped at New Orleans, but, in spite of the serious handicap of inadequate transportation, increasing quantities of provisions, flour, grain, whisky, and forest products were shipped to Europe. The exports from New Orleans, including those originating in the adjacent region as well as those received from the Middle West in 1807 ($4,321,000), exceeded those from eastern and southern States, such as Georgia, North Carolina, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, the merchants of which had long been engaged in the foreign trade and were within easy reach of the Atlantic seaboard. The abnormal increase in the export trade was accompanied by a rapid growth of foreign imports. The total value of the commodities imported advanced from $23,000,000 in 1790 to a maximum of $138,500,000 in 1807. (See table 44.) Since this included vast quantities of commodities which were imported merely to be reshipped abroad as neutral goods, the real increase in imports is more fairly represented by those imported products which were retained for consumption in the United States. But the value of this branch of the import trade also advanced from $22,461,000 in 1790 to $78,856,000 in 1807. Throughout this entire era of active foreign trade the imports retained for home consumption always exceeded the exports of domestic products, and the total import trade at all times exceeded the total export trade by many millions. The leading items in the import trade were European and English manufactures, consisting chiefly of metal goods, woolen, cotton, linen, and silk textiles, and glass, paper, leather, earthen, and other miscellaneous finished products. English manufactures continued to dominate the American market, but the fabrics and metal goods of continental Europe, especially those of Germany, were received in large quantities, and at various times threatened to drive out those of Great Britain. The remaining imports consisted mainly of luxuries and other articles for domestic consumption. Sugar, molasses, rum, and coffee were brought from the West Indies; wines from southern Europe; specie and bullion from Mexico, the West Indies, Peru, and many other lands; teas, silks, paper, and general spices from the Orient; hides and skins, coffee, and indigo from South America. 1U. S. Census, 1880. History and Present Conditions of New Orleans, 11-21; DeBow, Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western States, III, 480; I, 48. 'DeBow, Ibid., I, 316. For discussion of the opening of the Mississippi River for western navigation, see vol. I, chap. xiii. The apparently unfavorable balance of trade had little trade significance. Adam Seybert, the contemporary writer previously referred to, wrote as follows: "Our commerce with all parts of the world collectively taken, has produced an apparent unfavorable balance, amounting to $15,229,000 per annum; but this sum we find, was counter-balanced by the profits for freight alone. That the foreign commerce of the United States was very profitable, is evident from the general improvement of the country, the conditions of the people, and the extension of our cities in every state of the Union. Besides the gain for freight, our merchants received considerable sums for commissions and charges; and it has been ascertained, that great profits were made on the merchandise which they disposed of in Europe. To the above mentioned, we must add considerable sums remitted to us in specie from the West Indies and South America, of which our custom-houses make no returns. That much bullion and coin were brought into the United States is proved by the amount of our exports to China and the East Indies." The great bulk of the foreign trade-export as well as import-centered in the long-established markets of England, Continental Europe, and the West Indies. Relative to the total foreign trade of the United States, the West Indies lost the leading position which they had held in the commerce of the American colonies, but were second only to England and Europe as markets for American exports and as sources of a lucrative import trade. The least progress was made in the British West India trade, which continued to be hampered by British restrictions. Prior to 1794, American vessels were excluded from the British West Indies, the policy of England being to enable British ships to engage in a triangular trade between England, the United States, and the British islands. An article of Jay's treaty as drafted provided that American vessels "not being above 70 tons" should be permitted to enter the trade on condition that they would not carry molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton to any part of the world except the United States; but this article of the treaty was rejected by the United States Senate and the trade with the West Indies remained technically open only to British vessels. The pressure of the wars, however, compelled England from time to time to open her West India ports to American vessels, and from 1795 to 1807 exports valued at from $2,147,000 to $9,699,000 were annually shipped to these islands and imports valued at from $2,925,000 to $6,968,000 were received from them.2 The trade with the French, Dutch, Danish, and Spanish West Indies was highly prosperous until 1807, when the American reexport trade to Europe was restricted and the French islands fell into British control. The imports received in each case far exceeded the exports shipped from the United States to the islands. The restrictions of the French colonial policy were partially withdrawn in 1793, and the French West India ports were opened to American merchants and 1Statistical Annals, 281. 2Pitkin, A Statistical View, 193, 211. |