Commercial Effects of the War (1826)

BY CALEB CUSHING

THE rise of Newburyport to wealth and consequence was extremely rapid. This elevation was not capable of being ascribed entirely, or for the greater part, to intrinsive, local, or peculiar sources of prosperity. . . .

From what, then, sprung the prosperous energies and the speedy increase of the town, in its best days? — They arose, it is believed, mainly, from the address, enterprise, and good fortune of its citizens, in seizing upon the propitious opportunities afforded by the situation of the United States. Newburyport rose with the commercial rise of the count[r]y, and with that alone kept even pace. True it is, that the town stood somewhat in advance, in the celerity of its progress, of the nation at large; and this advancement, it is repeated, we must attribute to the character of its inhabitants, — which their staple manufacture contributed to develope. Their success was in maritime commerce, and in the arts subsidiary to, and dependant upon, maritime commerce. — And their skill in ship-building, created by their local advantage for that manufacture, empowered them the more easily to gain the start of other places in marine trade. For this business had enabled them to accumulate some capital. It made it easy, also, with a very small expense of outfit, to obtain a bottom for the transportation of goods. And by placing the means of foreign commerce constantly before the eyes of the people, in the shape of their staple product, it naturally tempted them the more to adventure in maritime speculations.

Thus matters stood, so long as the wonderful commercial prosperity of this country lasted. During this period, when the neutral position of America was so extraordinary, so unparalleled in the history of commerce, our citizens pushed their advantage to the utmost. The profits of commerce were immense. We had the carrying trade of the whole universe, almost, in our hands. Our proximity to the European colonies in America co-operated, with other things, to fill the horn of our abundance to overflowing. The industrious mechanic of the Merrimac found a demand for his manufacture: — the enterprising merchant could obtain his vessel on easy terms, and in a very short period she would earn her whole original cost. All the departments of industry connected with the ocean were thus stimulated to the highest degree, and universal prosperity and the easy acquisition of a competence, were the natural result.

France and England soon became jealous of this our rapid approach to the very empire of the seas and the monopoly of marine commerce. Previous to this, however, our trade to the French islands had begun to decline. The business was overdone by competition. — Their markets became drugged with our produce, as, indeed, they have continued to be ever since. They began to be more directly supplied with foreign manufactures, thereby diminishing the profits of our commerce with Europe. And no slight injury was sustained by our commerce, in consequence of the disorders in the West Indies occasioned by the French revolution.

But the deadly blow to our commercial prosperity was more directly struck by the insolence and cupidity of the great belligerents of Europe. Without entering into the broad question whether the system of restrictions on our commerce adopted by the government was or was not vindicated by the issue, thus much may be confidently affirmed: our government was forced into it by the injustice of foreign powers. It was a choice of evils. England, — France, — Holland, — Naples, — Denmark, — were committing the most flagitious depredations upon the property of our citizens. They were heap[i]ng insult upon insult, and injury upon injury. — They were sweeping our ships from the ocean with fearful rapacity, and profligate disregard of every law, divine or human. This it was, which drove our government into that series of restrictive measures, finally terminated in war. During that calamitous period, our seamen were thrown out of employment; our traders lost their customers; the farmers, who had looked to us for foreign commodities, and of whom we had purchased lumber, and provisions, left our market, — and our merchants were compelled to sit down idly and see their ships rotting in the docks. True it is that, had the uncalculating enterprise of our capitalists been left to itself, their ships and property would have been captured or confiscated abroad; and the millions of our foreign Claims would have been swelled incalculably; but, in either alternative, the loss must have been, as it was, deplorable. . . .

. . . The genuine difficulty to be solved, the question really needing an answer, is, why Newburyport did not resume its prosperity, and continue to rise, when all the temporary causes of misfortune alluded to had ceased to operate. We shall not find the explanation of this point . . . in the embargo, nor in the war. It is to be sought further. New-York and Boston have grown as rapidly since the pressure of those restrictions on commerce was taken off, as they did before. But various circumstances contributed to retard the increase of Newburyport, as is usual in similar cases.

Some of these were local. Thus the bar is undoubtedly some impediment to our prosperity, — because it confines our navigation to vessels of the smaller class; and, contrary to what was customary twenty years ago, the present exigencies of foreign trade require the use of large vessels. . . .

Every small sea-port competes, to great disadvantage, with any large one near to it. The greatest market will inevitably tend to swallow up others in its vicinity. This law of trade has undoubtedly operated to the serious injury of Newburyport. Like other sea-ports of the second class in Massachusetts bay, it has withered under the influence of Boston. There are but few exceptions to this remark, and those exceptions confirm the rule. Thus New-Bedford and Nantucket are sustained by their possession of the whale-fishery, Salem, also, had its advantage in the East India trade, so long as that continued peculiarly lucrative. But the bad effects of the vicinity of Boston are constantly and seriously experienced here, in leading the importer to make sales of large cargoes, or heavy goods, almost universally in Boston; and the retailer to resort there for his supplies. . . .

All these different causes have their influence. But the most efficient and comprehensive reason of the decline of the town is, in truth, the immense alteration of the general condition of business during the last fifteen years. The whole of Europe, with the exception of its extreme eastern regions, is in a state of peace. We are no longer the carriers for its many nations. The sphere of our commercial enterprize is wonderfully narrowed. Our capital is now driven into new channels, and the entire circle of the relations of business and trade has undergone a radical revolution. Foreign commerce now requires a larger capital than formerly, and the profits on it are less. We are beginning to perceive and appreciate the importance of encouraging and protecting domestic industry, for the most substantial reasons; and if we did not, the impossibility of employing all the resources of the country in commerce would force open our eyes to see the necessity of investing a portion of it in manufactures. Here, then, we lose our population, whilst other towns gain it. Boston, for instance, by reason of the immense accumulation of wealth in the hands of its inhabitants, becomes, by the laws of political economy, a permanent market as well for domestic manufactures and products, as for imported articles. Amesbury, Lowell, Dover, are the site of vast manufactories, and thither our mechanics and traders emigrate, following the concentration of capital, wherever it takes place. But we, on the other hand, have neither natural sites for manufactories, nor that immense accumulation of riches, which should secure to us, at present, the means of successful competition with any of those places, to which the recent revolutions in the conduct of business have imparted such great accession of wealth or population.

Caleb Cushing, (Newburyport, 1826), 109–114 passim.