e-exportation appeared among commercial returns, it was not an
interest of commerce, accurately so called, but of navigation, of
carrying trade. It had to do with ships, not with cargoes; its gain
was that of the wagoner. Still, the loss by the idleness of the ships,
due to the war, may be measured in terms of the cargoes. In 1805 New
England re-exported foreign products to the amount of $15,621,484; in
1811, $5,944,121; in 1813, no more than $302,781. It remains to add
that, as can be readily understood, all export, whether of foreign or
domestic produce, was chiefly by neutrals, which were not liable to
capture so long as there was no blockade proclaimed. From December 1
to 24, 1813, forty-four vessels cleared from Boston for abroad, of
which five only were Americans.[181]

Under the very reduced amount of their commercial movement, the
tonnage of the Middle and Southern states was more than adequate to
their local necessities; and they now had no need of the aid which in
conditions of normal prosperity they received from the Eastern
shipping. The latter, therefore, having lost its usual local
occupation, and also the office it had filled towards the other
sections of the Union, was either left idle or turned perforce to
privateering. September 7, 1813, there were in Boston harbor
ninety-one ships, two barks, one hundred and nine brigs, and
forty-three schooners; total, two hundred and forty-five, besides
coasters. The accumulation shows the lack of employment. December 15,
two hundred square-rigged vessels were laid up in Boston alone.[182]
Insurance on American vessels was stated to be fifty per cent.[183]

Whether tonnage to any large amount was transferred to a neutral flag,
as afterwards so much American shipping was during the Civil War, I
have not ascertained. It was roundly intimated that neutral flags were
used to cover the illicit intercourse with the enemy before mentioned;
but whether by regular transfer or by fraudulent papers does not
appear. An officer of the frigate "Congress," in her unprofitable
voyage just mentioned, says that after parting with the "President,"
she fell in with a few licensed Americans and a great number of
Spaniards and Portuguese.[184] The flags of these two nations, and of
Sweden, certainly abounded to an abnormal extent, and did much of the
traffic from America; but it seems unlikely that there was at that
particular epoch any national commerce, other than British, at once
la