Studies in American History 
43 
America, being recorded in the statistics as a clearance for a 
Dutch port and an entrance from an English port. The state- 
ment that this was done is not a guess, since the evidence 
is abundantly present in the ship notices of the Pennsylvania 
Packet. In this paper the name of the vessel, the name of 
the captain, and the name of the place from which the ship 
entered and to which it cleared were given. So it becomes 
easy to trace the course of these vessels. Great numbers of 
vessels cleared for Amsterdam and re-entered from Amster- 
dam, or cleared for London and soon re-entered from London. 
But others cleared for Amsterdam and re-entered from a 
British port, or from St. Eustatius. In fewer instances they 
cleared for a British port and re-entered from a Netherland 
port. Seldom did a vessel clear for St. Eustatius and re-enter 
from a port in the Netherlands. The cases where ships 
cleared for a British port and re-entered from a Dutch 
port will practically neutralize the cases where ships 
cleared for a Dutch port and re-entered from a Brit- 
ish port when it comes to a comparison of English- 
American and Dutch-American traffic. These vessels were 
really trading with both England and the Netherlands and in 
the records both countries got a fair average of the credit. 
This was not, however, true of the American vessel that 
touched at a British port both in going to and returning from 
the Netherlands. In this case the commerce was just as truly 
with both countries, but the credit in the records went entire- 
ly to British traffic. 
There was still another class of vessels that must be men- 
tioned. These were Dutch vessels plying between Dutch and 
American ports, that touched on the way at a British port. 
A Dutch vessel sailing from the Netherlands for America 
could not according to British laws carry British goods to 
America, but it could stop at a British port and dispose of a 
part of its Dutch cargo. This vessel would be listed in the 
Dutch records as clearing for an English port. It would not 
be included in the statistics of the Navigation and Trade 
Papers, and would be recorded in the Pennsylvania Packet 
as an entrance from England. Dutch ships sailing from the 
United States for the Netherlands could not legally carry 
American goods to Great Britain but they could stop at a 
British port and add a little British goods to their cargo. 
These ships would appear in the Dutch records as entering 
