rying trade were no
longer necessary, since in exchange for our imports from Europe we
could now export cotton. We were no longer competitors with Europe,
but had become contributors to European prosperity. Prior to 1815
England looked upon us as a commercial rival; after 1815 we became the
unconscious economic allies of all the industrial nations.

The extent to which our economic system had become complementary to the
European economic system is illustrated by a study of the statistics of
our foreign commerce. Of our exports one-half was raw cotton, and upon
a steady supply of this fibre a great European industry depended.
Later we shipped huge quantities of food which was also needed by the
manufacturers across the sea. As our cotton area extended, as our
wheat and meat exports increased, European, and especially British,
industry profited. At the same time, despite our high tariffs we
furnished an increasing market for wares manufactured in Europe, while
our own manufactures did not largely compete in the world markets.
Moreover the rapid development of our internal resources furnished
lucrative investment opportunities to European capital. A source of
raw material, a market for manufactured products, a field for
profitable investment, {39} America was Europe's back-yard, an economic
colony, though politically independent.

In the midst of this almost colonial development, there occurred one
startling interlude. About 1840 we developed a new type of sailing
vessel, the American clipper ship. Soon we had control of the China
trade and by 1861 our shipping (including domestic trade and the
fisheries) about equalled that of Great Britain. After the Civil War,
however, our chance of competing with Great Britain either in
ship-building or carrying disappeared. The iron steamship had arrived,
and, in the manufacture of such vessels, we were no match for the
English. Even without the Civil War we should have been beaten; the
Southern privateers, outfitted in English ports, merely hastened an
inevitable decay. We were not yet to enter upon a competition with
England for commercial supremacy.

There being thus no economic basis for war our outstanding questions
with European nations, and with England especially, were peacefully
settled. The Canadian fisheries and the Maine boundary dispute gave
rise to much bitter feeling but were not worth a war. Even the Monroe
Doctrine did not bring on a clash. Though Gr