except that to our eyes it would be a misuse of the word to call
any of those roads good. But anything which would improve the means of
transportation took on a patriotic tinge, and the building of roads and
the cutting of canals were agitated until turnpike and canal companies
became a favorite form of investment; and in a few years the interstate
land trade had grown to considerable importance. But in the meantime,
water transportation was the main reliance, and with the end of the war
the coastwise trade had been promptly resumed. For a time it prospered;
but the States, affected by the general economic conditions and by
jealousy, tried to interfere with and divert the trade of others to
their own advantage. This was done by imposing fees and charges and
duties, not merely upon goods and vessels from abroad but upon those of
their fellow States. James Madison described the situation in the words
so often quoted: "Some of the States,... having no convenient ports
for foreign commerce, were subject to be taxed by their neighbors, thro
whose ports, their commerce was carryed on. New Jersey, placed between
Phila. & N. York, was likened to a Cask tapped at both ends: and N.
Carolina between Virga. & S. Carolina to a patient bleeding at both
Arms."*

* "Records of the Federal Convention," vol. III, p. 542.

The business depression which very naturally followed the short revival
of trade was so serious in its financial consequences that it has even
been referred to as the "Panic of 1785." The United States afforded
a good market for imported articles in 1788 and 1784, all the better
because of the supply of gold and silver which had been sent into the
country by England and France to maintain their armies and fleets and
which had remained in the United States. But this influx of imported
goods was one of the chief factors in causing the depression of 1785, as
it brought ruin to many of those domestic industries which had sprung
up in the days of nonintercourse or which had been stimulated by the
artificial protection of the war.

To make matters worse, the currency was in a confused condition. "In
1784 the entire coin of the land, except coppers, was the product of
foreign mints. English guineas, crowns, shillings and pence were still
paid over the counters of shops and taverns, and with them were mingled
many French and Spanish and some German coins.... The value of the gold
pieces expressed in dollars was prett