In some directions they were successful. One of the products in
greatest demand was fish. The fishing industry had been almost
annihilated by the war, but with the establishment of peace the
New England fisheries began to recover. They were in competition
with the fishermen of France and England who were aided by large
bounties, yet the superior geographical advantages which the
American fishermen possessed enabled them to maintain and expand
their business, and the rehabilitation of the fishing fleet was
an important feature of their programme. In other directions they
were not so successful. The British still believed in their
colonial system and applied its principles without regard to the
interests of the United States. Such American products as they
wanted they allowed to be carried to British markets, but in
British vessels. Certain commodities, the production of which
they wished to encourage within their own dominions, they added
to the prohibited list. Americans cried out indignantly that this
was an attempt on the part of the British to punish their former
colonies for their temerity in revolting. The British Government
may well have derived some satisfaction from the fact that
certain restrictions bore heavily upon New England, as John Adams
complained; but it would seem to be much nearer the truth to say
that in a truly characteristic way the British were
phlegmatically attending to their own interests and calmly
ignoring the United States, and that there was little malice in
their policy.

European nations had regarded American trade as a profitable
field of enterprise and as probably responsible for much of Great
Britain's prosperity. It was therefore a relatively easy matter