ABSTRACT
During the forty years after 1775 the American people brought forth, not only a new nation, but also a national economy. The Revolution began a process of change that modified nearly every phase of American life. During the war the foreign trade of the Union was of highest importance. Americans had previously imported from Britain many scarce or high-grade products, such as woollen cloth, blankets, cannon, gunpowder, edged tools, paper, scientific apparatus, and instruments of navigation. Forced to get supplies from other sources, the Union had to wage war while devising a new commercial order. Sea-borne trade during the Revolution, carried on largely by armed vessels, was almost as warlike as military operations on land. American ships had to contend with a naval power that menaced them wherever they went. The sea lanes and ports of British-American trade were the scenes of a boundless maritime war.
