diaeval and exclusive type;
outraging impartially the British spirit of commercial enterprise, and
the daily needs of her own colonists, by the restrictions placed upon
intercourse between these and foreigners. Smuggling on a large scale,
consecrated in the practice of both parties by a century of tradition,
was met by a coast-guard system, employing numerous small vessels called
guarda-costas, which girt the Spanish coasts, but, being powerless to
repress effectually over so extensive a shore line, served rather to
increase causes of vexation. The British government, on the other hand,
not satisfied to leave the illicit trade on which Jamaica throve to
take care of itself, sought to increase the scope of transactions by the
institution of three free ports on the island,--free in the sense of
being open as depots, not for the entrance of goods, but where they
could be freely brought, and transshipped to other parts of the world by
vessels of all nations; broker ports, in short, for the facilitation of
general external trade.

To this open and ingenuous bid for fuller advantage by Spanish resort,
Spain replied by doubling her custom-house forces and introducing
renewed stringency into her commercial orders. The two nations, with
France in Hayti for a third, stood on ceaseless guard one against the
other; all imbued with the spirit of exclusive trade, and differing only
in the method of application, according to their respective day-to-day
views of policy. The British by the free-port system, instituted in
their central geographical position, hoped to make the profits of the
middleman. Rodney reported that the effect had been notably to
discourage the direct Spanish intercourse, and to destroy carriage by
British colonial vessels in favor of those of France, which now flocked
to Jamaica, smuggled goods into the island, and apparently cut under
their rivals by the greater benevolence shown them in Spanish ports.
"Commerce by British bottoms has totally ceased." Herewith, he added,
disappeared the opportunities of British seamen to become familiar with
the Spanish and French waters, while their rivals were invited to
frequent those of Jamaica; so that in case of war--which in those days
was periodical--the advantage of pilotage would be heavily on the side
of Great Britain's enemies. He also stated that the diminution of
employment to British merchant vessels had greatly impaired his means of
obtaining information from with