rge enough, and sufficiently deficient in shipping of its own, to
absorb any great number of Americans. In truth, the commerce of the
world had lost pretty much all its American component, because this,
through a variety of causes, had come to consist chiefly of domestic
agricultural products, which were thrown back upon the nation's hands,
and required no carriers; the enemy having closed the gates against
them, except so far as suited his own purposes. The disappearance of
American merchant ships from the high seas corresponded to the void
occasioned by the blockade of American staples of commerce. The only
serious abatement from this generalization arises from the British
system of licenses, permitting the egress of certain articles useful
to themselves.

The results from the conditions above analyzed are reflected in the
returns of commerce, in the movements of American coasters, and in the
consequent dispositions of the enemy. In the Treasury year ending
September 30, 1813, the value of the total exports from the Eastern
states was $3,049,022; from the Middle section, $17,513,930; from the
South, $7,293,043. Virginia is here reckoned with the Middle, because
her exports found their way out by the Chesapeake; and this
appreciation is commercial and military in character, not political or
social. While this was the state of foreign trade under war
conditions, the effect of local circumstances upon coasting is also to
be noticed. The Middle section, characterized by the great estuaries,
and by the description of its products,--grain primarily, and secondly
tobacco,--was relatively self-sufficing and compact. Its growth of
food, as has been seen, was far in excess of its wants, and the
distance by land between the extreme centres of distribution, from
tide-water to tide-water, was comparatively short. From New York to
Baltimore by road is but four fifths as far as from New York to
Boston; and at New York and Baltimore, as at Boston, water
communication was again reached for the great lines of distribution
from either centre. In fact, traffic from New York southward needed to
go no farther than Elk River, forty miles short of Baltimore, to be in
touch with the whole Chesapeake system. Philadelphia lies half-way
between New York and Baltimore, approximately a hundred miles from
each.

The extremes of the Middle section of the country were thus
comparatively independent of coastwise traffic for mutual intercourse,
and