CHAPTER I. Colonial Conditions

COLONIAL CONDITIONS Page Remote origin of the causes of the War of 1812 1

Two principal causes: impressment and the carrying trade 2

Claim of Great Britain as to impressment 3

Counter-claim of the United States 4

Lack of unanimity among the American people 5

Prevailing British ideas as to sea power and its relations to carrying trade and impressment 9

The Navigation Acts 10

Distinction between "Commerce" and "Navigation" 11

History and development of the Navigation Acts, and of the national opinions relating to them 13

Unanimity of conviction in Great Britain 22

Supposed benefit to the British carrying trade from loss of the American colonies 23

British entrepôt legislation 24

Relation of the entrepôt idea to the Orders in Council of 1807 27

Colonial monopoly a practice common to all European maritime states 27

Effect of the Independence of the United States upon traditional commercial prepossessions 29

Consequent policy of Great Britain 29

Commercial development of the British transatlantic colonies during the colonial period 31

Interrelation of the continental and West India colonies of Great Britain 35

Bearing of this upon the Navigation Acts 36

Rivalry of American-built ships with British navigation during the colonial period 37

Resultant commercial rivalry after Independence 40

Consequent disagreements, derived from colonial restrictions, and leading to war 41