16 
Indiana University Studies 
all such articles as may now be brought from thence to the United States 
in British bottoms.®^ 
Hamilton was aware that an act of Parliament had been passed 
allowing foreign European vessels, single-decked and not ex- 
ceeding seventy tons burthen, to carry to specified ports in the 
British West Indies certain enumerated articles and also to 
export certain articles in return, a fact which was not gen- 
erally known at that time in America. He believed that this 
act would give a precedent for a departure from the naviga- 
tion acts in favor of the United States also."^"’ Hamilton’s rec- 
ommendation was incorporated in Jay’s instructions, with the 
proviso that a treaty on such terms should not exceed a period 
of fifteen years.®® 
In August of that year. Jay, in the “Outlines for a Conven- 
tion and Treaty of Commerce” which he submitted to Lord 
Grenville, included the following article in regard to the Brit- 
ish West India trade : 
It is agreed that it shall and may be lawful for the said United 
States and their citizens to carry, in their own vessels, of the burthen 
of one hundred tons, or under, from the said United States, any goods, 
wares and merchandises which British vessels now carry from the United 
States to any of His Majesty’s islands or ports in the West Indies, and 
shall pay in the said islands and ports only such rates of tonnage as 
British vessels do, or shall be liable to pay in the United States; and 
only such other charges, imposts, and duties as British vessels and car- 
goes laden in, and arriving from, the United States now are or hereafter 
shall be, lawfully liable to in the said islands and ports: and that it 
shall and may be lawful for the said American vessels to purchase, lade 
and carry away, from the said islands and ports, all such of the produc- 
tions and manufactures of the said islands as they may think proper, and 
paying only such duties and charges on exportations as such vessels and 
cargoes if British would be liable to: Provided always, That they carry 
and land the same in the United States and at no place whatever out of 
the same: it being expressly agreed and declared that West India pro- 
ductions or manufactures shall not be transported in American vessels 
either from His Majesty’s said islands or from the United States, to any 
port of the world except the United States, reasonable sea stores ex- 
cepted, and excepting, also, rum made in the United States from West 
India molasses.'*^ 
It will be noticed that this project was practically the same as 
Hamilton’s memorandum to Washington, except for the last 
Works of Alex. Hamilton, IV, 303. 
^Ubid., IV, 311. 
3« Am. State Papers, For. Rel., I, 473. 
^Ubid., I, 487. 
