156 
Indiana University Studies 
to do this because of the devastation wrought by a late hurri- 
cane, because of the destruction of British vessels which 
brought supplies from the foreign islands in the West Indies, 
and because it was ‘^absolutely requisite'' to prevent distress/®^ 
Again, by an order in council, American vessels were per- 
mitted to enter the ports of the Bahama Islands in ballast to 
export salt and fruit, an order which especially riled Mr. 
Niles, who declared : 
We have rarely met with a small matter containing so much arrogance. 
We are permitted to carry specie to the Bahamas, to purchase its sur- 
plus and wasting productions of salt, or to obtain cargoes of perishable 
fruit! “God save the King!”^®^ 
The effect of the British interdict of American trade upon 
the commerce of the United States in view of these conditions 
is revealed to some extent by the following table 
Destination 
Yearly Average, 
American Domestic 
Exports, Oct. 1, 1824 
to Sept. 30, 1826 
Yearly Average, 
American Domestic 
Exports, Oct. 1, 1827 
to Sept. 30, 1829 
British West Indies 
$1,857,222 
1,336,126 
465,659 
920,741 
157,167 
213,480 
3,513,107 
625,222 
$13,806 
2,072,237 
397,608 
1,033,038 
648,053 
215,985 
3,816,130 
398,706 
Danish West Indies 
Dutch West Indies. 
French West Indies 
Swedish West Indies 
Spanish West Indies. 
Cuba 
West Indies, general 
Total 
$9,088,724 
$8,595,563 
Comparing the totals for the two periods, the effect of the 
British interdict appears to be a decrease in American do- 
mestic exports to the West Indies of $493,161 or a trifle more 
than 26 per cent of the amount exported to the British West 
Indies directly in the two years before the order in council. 
But if only the figures for the Danish, French, and Swedish 
West Indies and Cuba are used as a basis for comparison — 
and these were the chief depots in the indirect trade — it is 
found that the decrease was only $201,099 or approximately 
St. Christopher Advertiser, Sept. 25, 1827. 
^<^Niles^ Register, XXXIII, 329, 337. 
Compiled from Table No. 8 in each of the following State Papers'. 19 Cong., 
1 Sess., IX, No. 148; 19 Cong., 2 Sess., VI, No. 120; 20 Cong., 2 Sess., IV, No. 137: 
and 21 Cong., 1 Sess., II, No. 49, Table No. 9. 
