8 
Indiana University Studies 
however. With the recognition by Great Britain of the inde- 
pendence of the United States, the latter became automatically 
excluded by the existing navigation acts from direct commer- 
cial intercourse with the British West Indies. That this might 
be the case, the American colonists had realized, and their 
anxiety on the subject of future commercial intercourse is 
seen in the fact that the commissioners who were sent to 
negotiate the treaty of peace were also empowered to conclude 
a commercial convention.^ Since the campaign to gain the 
legal right for American vessels to enter the ports of the Brit- 
ish West Indies was, in the early years, coupled with the gen- 
eral commercial negotiations, it may therefore be said to have 
had its beginning in the very negotiations which led to the 
recognition of the United States by Great Britain. In this 
first move, however, the American diplomats were unsuccess- 
ful, for the British Government was, at that time, unwilling 
to take any other step in its diplomatic relations with Amer- 
ica than the acknowledgment of the independence of the coun- 
try.® Nevertheless, the American Government persisted, and 
Congress by a resolution of the 1st of May, 1783, only ten 
days after the ratification of peace, again ordered a commis- 
sion and instructions to be prepared for their commissioners 
in Europe to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain 
before returning. But this second attempt was equally un- 
successful.® 
Meanwhile, with the return of peace, trade with the Brit- 
ish West Indies had been renewed upon the former terms, — 
but only for a short time. At the suggestion of Lord Nelson, 
then stationed in the West Indies, the British navigation acts 
were invoked against American vessels, and the basis was laid 
for the long controversy between the two countries over the 
colonial trade. 
Had all the British statesmen of that period held the liberal 
views of William Pitt, this controversy would have been of 
only short duration. In March, 1783, he introduced into 
Parliament a bill which among other things admitted Amer- 
ican ships into the British West Indies with any American 
goods, and permitted them to export from those colonies to the 
Lyman, Diplomacy of the U.S., 193. 
^ Ibid., 193. 
Ibid., 193. Works of John Adams, VIII, 146. 
Am. Annual Register, 1829-30, p. 34. 
