66 
Indiana University Studies 
provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but in the Brit- 
ish West Indies. Altho couched in general" language as to 
foreign vessels, really the act applied almost solely to those of 
the United States. No other country would be likely to ex- 
port to these free ports the articles enumerated; no other 
country would be likely to draw from them many of the arti- 
cles permitted to be taken away. These free ports should 
become places of deposit in an indirect trade between the 
United States and the British West Indies, a trade in which 
British shipping should enjoy much the greater share. The 
increased cost of the articles, due to additional freight and the 
like, would, of course, have to be borne by the West India 
planters. 
This act of Parliament was carried into effect by an order 
in council of May 27, 1818, designating St. Johns and Halifax 
as the free ports.^^ And seven weeks before the American 
act went into operation, the British act was proclaimed in 
Halifax.^® The United States Treasury Department, to be 
sure, ruled that Halifax and St. Johns were not open to Amer- 
ican vessels by the “ordinary laws of navigation and frade'' 
and therefore refused to admit British vessels from those ports 
to the United States.^^ But American vessels were free to 
resort to them with their cargoes, and lost no time in doing 
so. As early as August, several arrived in one day at Hali- 
fax.^® The day before the American restrictive act went into 
effect, ten vessels exclusively British were loading at Halifax 
with goods for the British West Indies.^^ And American trade 
to these free ports continued to increase; in fact, it increased 
so rapidly that the Halifax merchants were not prepared to 
embrace all the advantages which it offered.^® Thus was the 
American navigation act neutralized thru the cooperation of 
the British free port act and American merchants. 
Nor was this all. The free port act was planned more es- 
pecially to protect British shipping interests than to aid the 
West India colonists. For the latter a second measure was 
passed, which permitted the import into the British West In-* 
American Mercury, Aug. 11, 1818. 
Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. 25, 1818. 
Ibid., Sept. 10, 1818. 
Halifax Royal Gazette, Aug. 19, 1818, in Daily National Intelligencer, Sept. 7, 
1818. 
^^Nexv England Palladium and Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 6, 1818. 
^°Ibid., Nov. 27, 1818. 
