ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the trading practices and explores for the new, weak republic, the United States, from the beginning of its de fact independence in 1783 through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars all the way to the period of peace in 1830. It also explores an important field of analysis, namely the discussion of the economic impacts of war on trade as well as the role of neutral and/or weaker states in wartime situations. The chapter discusses why the study of smaller/weaker nations is important and reviews some of the existing scholarship of early American trade. It evaluates some broad trends in US trade and provides a closer look at the role European nations other than Great Britain, France, and Germany played in this trade. The chapter analyzes the early 19th century and a war year in the context of US trade and also discusses US–Portuguese trade as a case in point, to be followed by some preliminary conclusions.