so far cited, what can
testify more forcibly to the strangulation of the coasting trade than
the fact that in the month of March, 1815,--news of the peace having
been received February 11,--there sailed from Boston one hundred and
forty-four vessels, more than half of them square-rigged; and that of
the whole all but twenty-six were for United States ports. Within three
weeks of April there arrived at Charleston, exclusive of coasters, one
hundred and fifty-eight vessels; at Savannah, in the quarter ending June
30, two hundred and three. Something of this outburst of activity, in
which neutrals of many nations shared, was due, as Mr. Clay said, to the
suddenness with which commerce revived after momentary suspension. "The
bow had been unstrung that it might acquire fresh vigor and new
elasticity"; and the stored-up products of the country, so long barred
within, imparted a peculiar nervous haste to the renewal of intercourse.
The absolute numbers quoted do not give as vivid impression of
conditions at differing times as do some comparisons, easily made. In
the year 1813, as shown by the returns of the United States Treasury,
out of 674,853 tons of registered--sea-going--shipping, only
233,439--one third--paid the duties exacted upon each several voyage,
and of these many doubtless sailed under British license.[211] In 1814
the total tonnage, 674,632, shows that ship-building had practically
ceased; and of this amount one twelfth only, 58,756 tons, paid dues for
going out.[212] In 1816, when peace conditions were fully established,
though less than two years had passed, the total tonnage had increased
to 800,760; duties, being paid each voyage, were collected on
865,219.[213] Thus the foreign voyages that year exceeded the total
shipping of the country, and by an amount greater than all the American
tonnage that put to sea in 1814.

The movement of coasting vessels, technically called "enrolled," is
not so clearly indicated by the returns, because all the trips of each
were covered by one license annually renewed. A licensed coaster might
make several voyages, or she might make none. In 1813 the figures show
that, of 471,109 enrolled tonnage, 252,440 obtained licenses. In 1814
there is, as in the registered shipping, a diminution of the total to
466,159, of which a still smaller proportion, 189,662, took out the
annual license. In 1816 the enrolment was 522,165, the licensing
414,594. In the fishing craft, a class by th