Benns: British West India Carrying-Trade 
17 
proviso, agreeing that American vessels should carry no West 
India goods to any other place than the United States, and 
should not export any of them from the United States to any 
other country. This clause was added by Jay, no doubt after 
having sounded the British commissioners on the general pro- 
posal. And it was this proviso which later aroused so much 
opposition in the United States. 
Jay’s proposal appears to have been generally acceptable 
to the British Government, for Lord Grenville, in his counter- 
project, changed it in only two respects. American ships 
should not be above the burden of seventy Tons, and the arti- 
cle should be continued in force only during the war in which 
Great Britain was then engaged and for two years after the 
signature of the preliminary articles of peace, altho the treaty 
as a whole was to be in force for twelve years. It was agreed 
that at the expiration of this term, the two countries should 
treat further concerning the arrangement of the British West 
India commerce.^® 
Secretary of State Randolph was not altogether satisfied 
with this provision regarding the British West India trade. 
He believed, in the first place, that the short duration of the 
privilege rendered it of inconsiderable value; secondly, that 
if the final proviso meant that American ships should not ex- 
port any West India products from the United States even tho 
imported from the West India possessions of countries other 
than Great Britain, the United States would renounce a valu- 
able branch of trade ; and, thirdly, that even if the proviso was 
construed in its mildest significance (that the United States 
could not re-export British West India productions, after they 
had been brought to the United States in British or American 
vessels) , the provision was unreasonable and dictated too much 
to the United States in what manner a certain portion of its 
foreign export trade was to be conducted.®^ 
But before Randolph’s observations had been received. Jay 
had already concluded a Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and 
Navigation, incorporating in Article XII the counter-project 
regarding the British West India trade which had been sub- 
mitted by Lord Grenville, with the definite specification in 
the final proviso that no molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, nor 
I, 490 . 
^^Ibid., 1, 511 , 512 . 
2—23811 
