American Trade Restrictions during the War of 1812

Abstract

For more than six years, from 1806 to 1812, trade restrictions were at the heart of American foreign policy. Although the Jeffersonian Republicans always defended the restrictive system as an alternative to war-as a peaceful means of upholding the nation's rights in the face of European encroachments-they refused to abolish the system even after war had been declared against England in 1812. On the contrary, the record shows that they steadily expanded the system as the nation's military fortunes waned. Indeed, most Republicans regarded trade restrictions not as an alternative to war, but as an indispensable means of prosecuting the war. The restrictive system, in other words, played a central role in Republican strategy for winning the war. The restrictive system had its origins in the era of the American Revolution. In the 1760s and 1770s, the American colonies had employed nonimportation and nonexportation against the mother country in an effort to force the British to change their tax and trade policies. Although these measures had little impact on British colonial policy, Republican leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison interpreted history otherwise. Convinced that American trade was crucial to British prosperity, they tried to secure congressional approval for economic sanctions in the 1790s. At first their aim was to extract a favorable commercial treaty from Britain, but, after the outbreak of the wars of the French Revolution, they also sought greater respect for American rights. Although Federalists blocked these measures, Republican leaders achieved national power in 1801 and thereafter were in a position to put their views on economic coercion to a full test, not only against England but against France as well. The restrictive system was launched in Jefferson's second administration in response to Britain's stepped-up war on neutral trade and her impressment of American seamen.' The first measure to become law was the partial non-