34 
Indiana University Studies 
monopolized by British vessels.-^ While in 1806 one hundred 
and three American vessels had cleared from Portsmouth for 
the West Indies, in 1816 the number had sunk to forty-four.^^ 
Of the merchandise transported in this trade, it was estimated 
that nearly 84 per cent, so far as value was concerned, was 
carried in British ships, the small portion which was carried 
in American vessels arising from accidental and temporary 
suspensions of the colonial system by the governors of the va- 
rious islands, under the pressure of dire necessity.^^ 
But the exclusion of American shipping from the British 
West Indies had even more widespread effects. The direct 
trade between the United States and Great Britain was so 
interwoven with, and dependent upon, the trade between the 
United States and the British colonies in the West Indies as 
in a great measure to deprive the former of the advantages 
intended to be secured by the commercial convention.^^ It was 
soon discovered that British vessels possessed a very profitable 
triangular trade route which was closed to Americans.^^ Brit- 
ish vessels loaded with dry goods, salt, earthenware, coal, or 
other bulky articles of small value, the profits on which gener- 
ally afforded a moderate freight, sailed to ports of the United 
States. After unloading their cargoes and taking on others of 
provisions, lumber, stock, or such other articles as were ad- 
mitted into the British West Indies, they could then proceed 
to ports in those islands. Thence, having unloaded once more 
and having taken on a cargo of sugar or molasses, they could 
sail directly to their home ports; or, if they found freights 
from those islands to Great Britain scarce, they could go in a 
few days to New Orleans for a load of cotton or tobacco for 
a European port.^^ This indirect route to the British West 
Indies by way of the United States, even apart from the ad- 
vantage which it gave British merchants in competition with 
those of the United States, was really a great boon to Great 
Britain. The latter had few articles to send to her colonies 
in the West Indies. As a consequence, British vessels, if con- 
Am. State Papers, Commerce and Navigation, II, 114. 
-■* Memorial of ship-owners in New Ham%>shire Gazette, Feb. 11, 1817. 
Am. State Papers, For. Pel., V, 1. 
Senate Docs., 21 Cong., 2 Sess., I, No. 20, p. 4. 
2" Netv York Evening Post, Jan. 8, 1816. Neiv York Commercial Advertiser quoted 
in Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 15, 1816. 
Am. State Papers, For. Rel., V, 6. 
