20 
Indiana University Studies 
the import of ‘‘flour, bread, wheat, rice, or grain of any sort, 
staves, heading, shingles, or lumber of any sort, horses, horned 
cattle or live stock of any kind”, from the United States or 
elsewhere, in all ships and vessels belonging to the United 
States or to any of the West India colonies at peace with Great 
Britain.®^ Jamaica threw open her ports even to salted pro- 
visions which had heretofore been rigorously excluded.®^ One 
of the British consuls-general in the United States went so far 
indeed as to publish notices in American newspapers in 1796 
announcing that American vessels might carry goods to Mar- 
tinique and receive rum and molasses in exchange for their 
respective cargoes.®^ In this same year the House of Assembly 
of the Bahama Islands urged that two or more fast-sailing 
vessels be dispatched to some of the southern ports of the 
United States to announce the scarcity of provisions at that 
time prevailing in those islands, and recommended the grant- 
ing of bounties upon all flour, rice, corn, and peas which might 
be imported for a limited time.^^ 
In view of these conditions, it is not surprising that Amer- 
ican shipping interests once more began to do a prosperous 
business with the British West Indies. Whereas the total ton- 
nage of American ships entering the United States from those 
islands for the three years ending September 30, 1792, had 
averaged only 4,461 tons, for the year beginning October 1, 
1793, after the opening of war between France and Great 
Britain, it jumped to 58,989 tons. This was an increase of 
more than thirteen fold, and made the total of American ton- 
nage from the British West Indies higher than American 
tonnage entered from any other country for that year.^^ And 
with this increase in American tonnage to the British West 
Indies came a great increase in the amount of exports to those 
islands from the United States, mounting gradually from a 
total of $2,144,638 for the year ending September 30, 1792, to 
$9,699,722, a total approximately fqur and one-half times 
larger, for the year ending September 30, 1801.®® The Eng- 
lish navigation system might still be theoretically in force, but 
Daily Advertiser (New York), Aug. 6, 1793. 
Ibid., May 5, 1794. 
Polar Star and Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 8, 1796. 
Quoted in Polar Star and Boston Daily Advertiser, Dec. 31, 1796. 
Am. State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, I, 44-47, 217, 264, 330. 
'^Uhid., I, 218-248, 488, 489. 
