interest which must
have behind it a well-organized, coherent national government, able to
protect it and to enforce its rights in foreign lands, it is the shipping
interest. But American ships, after the Treaty of Paris, hailed from
thirteen independent but puny States. They had behind them the shadow of a
confederacy, but no substance. The flags they carried were not only not
respected in foreign countries--they were not known. Moreover, the States
were jealous of each other, possessing no true community of interest, and
each seeking advantage at the expense of its neighbors. They were already
beginning to adopt among themselves the very tactics of harassing and
crippling navigation laws which caused the protest against Great Britain.
This "Critical Period of American History," as Professor Fiske calls it,
was indeed a critical period for American shipping.

The new government, formed under the Constitution, was prompt to recognize
the demands of the shipping interests upon the country. In the very first
measure adopted by Congress steps were taken to encourage American
shipping by differential duties levied on goods imported in American and
foreign vessels. Moreover, in the tonnage duties imposed by Congress an
advantage of almost 50 per cent. was given ships built in the United
States and owned abroad. Under this stimulus the shipping interests
throve, despite hostile legislation in England, and the disordered state
of the high seas, where French and British privateers were only a little
less predatory than Algierian corsairs or avowed pirates. It was at this
early day that Yankee skippers began making those long voyages that are
hardly paralleled to-day when steamships hold to a single route like a
trolley car between two towns. The East Indies was a favorite trading
point. Carrying a cargo suited to the needs of perhaps a dozen different
peoples, the vessel would put out from Boston or Newport, put in at
Madeira perhaps, or at some West Indian port, dispose of part of its
cargo, and proceed, stopping again and again on its way, and exchanging
its goods for money or for articles thought to be more salable in the East
Indies. Arrived there, all would be sold, and a cargo of tea, coffee,
silks, spices, nankeen cloth, sugar, and other products of the country
taken on. If these goods did not prove salable at home the ship would make
yet another voyage and dispose of them at Hamburg or some other
Continental port. In 17