THE WAR AND FLUCTUATIONS IN MARITIME INTERCOURSE 681 
mother country; previously this trade had been closed to them, A) es 
but during the war it was convenient to the French that it ’ 
should be conducted in ships sailing under the United States 
flag. At the Peace of Amiens in 1802 the government of 
France at once resumed the colonial monopoly, and excluded 
the United States ships from a trade which they had enjoyed 
during the war'. Hence during the brief period of peace, the 
French and Dutch trade revived, and the shipping of the 
States, which had increased enormously during the Revolu- 
tionary War, suffered a corresponding decline. With the 
outbreak of the Napoleonic War, however, the French com- 
mercial policy was changed again, and the trade between the 
mother country and the colonies was thrown open to neutrals. 
The United States took full advantage of their opportunity, 
and a new period of prosperity for their shipping began’ 
By calling at an American port and taking out fresh papers, 
a vessel could carry on a regular trade between France and 
her colonies, without having any reason to elude our privateers. 
Indeed the cessation of the restrictive policy, which France 
and Spain had pursued, favoured the rapid development of 
their colonies?; and as the neutral traders had no need of 
convoys, or special rates of insurance, the sugar of the French 
colonies could be imported on cheaper terms than that from 
our own islands, even at the very time when we had a 
complete supremacy at sea. It was further contended that 
this trade was not a genuine neutral trade, since, owing to 
the French navigation laws, the neutrals would never have 
had the opportunity of engaging in it, but for the war; as a 
matter of fact it had been held illicit in 1756, and our courts 
had never departed from the rule which was then laid down*, 
1 War vn Disguise, 1805 [by A. Stephen], p. 19. 
2 Though none of the United States ports lay on the direct route from South 
America or the West Indies to France and Holland, the trade winds and Gulf 
Stream (War tn Disguise, 1805, p. 42) served in such a fashion, that there was bat 
little delay in transmitting goods by way of some North American port, so that the 
stream of trade between France and Holland and their West Indian colonies 
readily shifted, according to the exigencies of the times. 
3 War in Disguise, p. 75. 
¢ «The general rule is, that the neutral has a right to carry on, in time of war, 
his accustomed trade, to the utmost extent of which that accustomed trade is 
capable. Very different is the case of a trade which the neutral has never 
yossessed, which he holds by no title of use and habit in times of peace; and