CHAPTER XIII
HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY
The policies of the United States in support of foreign trade
have been largely shaped in behalf of the two economic activities:
shipping and manufacturing. At times, it is true, the producers
of natural products have exerted an influence which has had its
effects in Washington, but this impulse has not been consistent
and perhaps at no time has it been dominant. In the early
decades of American history, shipping was the chief care of our
commercial diplomats, while in recent years the safeguarding of
markets for manufactured goods has been of far more concern.
In behalf of first one and then the other of these activities, the
American government has since the Revolution been almost
continually interested in the politics of foreign trade.In order that the reader may see panoramically the influence
of commerce in American politics the following aspects of the
subject will be reviewed briefly:| 1. | The shipping period: | The struggles against the mercantilist system. | | The advocacy of neutral rights and the freedom of the seas. | | The drive against the markets of the Far East. |
|
| 2. | The period of manufacturing. | The demand for special favors. | | Pan-Americanism as an agency of trade promotion. | | The demand for equal treatment. |
|
THE YOUNG NATION STRUGGLES AGAINST THE MERCANTILLIST
SYSTEM
Back in the pre-Revolution days the British mercantilist laws
had tended to place an exasperating check on the commerce of
the colonists. Parliament had stipulated that certain commodities could not be exported from the colonies except to Great Britain or her dominions, thus preventing colonial trade
with foreign countries. Smuggling, carried on with the support
of public opinion, went far to mitigate the rigors of the restrictions,
but, nevertheless, the fetters on colonial trade continued to the
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Publication information:
Book title: Economic Foreign Policy of the United States.
Contributors: Benjamin H. Williams - Author.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc..
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1929.
Page number: 245.
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