580 LAISSEZ FAIRE

A.D. 1776
1980

then can these two powers wage war with the produce of
their commercial dealings as England does? England alone
has room, notwithstanding the harbours that are shut against
her, on the extensive globe, and the vast oceans that surround
 it.
«The sums which Spain and Portugal are obliged to pay
to France for their neutrality, cannot, at any rate, indemnify
the latter for the expenses of the war, for the obstruction of
ber commerce, and the loss of her colonies. Add to this, that
the credit which France and Holland once had; 18 now so
very, very trifling, as to cripple and paralyse every important
enterprise in which they may happen to embark.
«What then will be the end of this new war, carried on
with so much fury? What are the catastrophes that will at
last bring back peace, and appease enraged minds? No
mortal will dare to give a decisive answer to these questions.
2 far But the attentive observer of the history of his time is,
abe to however, at liberty to take a view of matters of fact, and of
triumph én 416 resources of the contending parties, from which he may
deduce tolerably accurate conclusions".”
Had English statesmen been a little more confident of
their real strength they might have been saved from a costly
blunder; but in the terrible strain of the struggle they were
tempted to make a ruthless use of their advantages. It was
of course our object, as in the Revolutionary War, to destroy
The ote oo the commerce of France and Holland. In this we were
England to extraordinarily successful. © Not a single merchant ship,” as
destroy the was asserted in 1805, “ under a flag inimical to Great Britain,
of France now crosses the equator or traverses the Atlantic Ocean®”
her with _ Markets formerly closed were now opened by force; England
the United yo
ates was able to take advantage of her maritime supremacy to
prevent the transport of goods by other traders; she was
thus once more brought into conflict with neutrals, and
especially with the people of the United States.
American shipowners had enjoyed a period of unwonted
prosperity from 1793—1802 during the Revolutionary War;
they had temporarily become the principal carriers in the
trade between the French West Indian colonies and the
1 Reinhard, op. cit. pp. 43—46.

2 War in Disguise, p. 71.