slaves died of starvation because the American traders were
compelled to cease bringing them dried fish and corn during
seasons in which their own crops were destroyed by hurricanes.

In 1776, one-third of the seagoing merchant marine of Great
Britain had been bought or built to order in America because
lumber was cheaper and wages were lower. This lucrative business
was killed by a law which denied Englishmen the privilege of
purchasing ships built in American yards. So narrow and bitter
was this commercial enmity, so ardent this desire to banish the
Stars and Stripes from blue water, that Lord Sheffield in 1784
advised Parliament that the pirates of Algiers and Tripoli really
benefited English commerce by preying on the shipping of weaker
nations. "It is not probable that the American States will have a
very free trade in the Mediterranean," said he. "It will not be
to the interest of any of the great maritime Powers to protect
them from the Barbary States. If they know their interests, they
will not encourage the Americans to be carriers. That the Barbary
States are advantageous to maritime Powers is certain."

Denied the normal ebb and flow of trade and commerce and with the
imports from England far exceeding the value of the merchandise
exported thence, the United States, already impoverished, was
drained of its money, and a currency of dollars, guineas, joes,
and moidores grew scarcer day by day. There was no help in a
government which consisted of States united only in name.
Congress comprised a handful of respectable gentlemen who had
little power and less responsibility, quarreling among themselves
for lack of better employment. Retaliation against England by
means of legislation was utterly impossible. Each State looked