History of the Royal Navy, Forcefully Advocated the United
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LIBRARY FOR REFERENCE USE ONLY University of Greenwich Greenwich Maritime Institute Dissertation submitted towards the degree of Ph D in Maritime History The Royal Navy and Economic Warfare in North America, 1812-1815 Brian Arthur Parti February 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks go to those without whose help this dissertation would have remained unrealised, especially to Dr Ned Wilmott and Dr Clive Wilkinson for their early suggestions and enthusiasm, and to my friend Chris Ware for his encouragement throughout, including the loan of essential and often valuable books. Also to Professor Roger Knight, my first Supervisor, for his experience and advice, patiently recounted, and to my second Supervisor, Professor Sarah Palmer, Director of the Greenwich Maritime Institute, for her sagacity, skills, and sacrificed lunch-breaks. I am grateful to Faye Kert, who kindly sent me from Canada a copy of her list of British prizes sent into Halifax, Nova Scotia during the war, now in her Prize and Prejudice: Privateering and Naval Prize in Atlantic Canada in the War of 1812, published in 1997. Her findings, duly acknowledged, were then selectively compared with earlier lists to measure the efficiency of the Royal Navy's blockades in North America. I am also grateful to Clair York for her help with computer technology, and to Nicola Lidgett and Suzanne Bowles for their advice on maps. My thanks are also due to Reginald Stafford-Smith, 'former naval person', friend and neighbour, who read early drafts and references with his relentless eye for detail. I am grateful to the staff of the Dreadnought Library of the University of Greenwich, especially for the early help of Karen Richardson, and for the professional help given by the staffs of the Caird Library of the National Maritime Museum, the Institute of Historical Research in London, and The National Archives at Kew. I was impressed with the help provided by the British Library at both Euston and Colindale, and by the library staff of the London School of Economics. I remain particularly grateful to the staff of the Brynmor Jones Library of the University of Hull, at the time wrestling with the consequences of a serious flood, and to Mary Robertson of the Huntingdon Library in San Marino, California, in the throes of re-housing their entire collection, who still found time to help me. I am grateful to Mr Charles Consolvo, former student of the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich, and to the Admiral Sir John Chambers White Bursary for its funding of an important week's work in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. I am grateful also to Dr Julian Gwyn for sharing his knowledge of New World resources. The opportunity to see vital American primary sources, manuscript and printed, was made possible with the help of Dr Nigel Rigby, Head of Research, and of Janet Norton at the National Maritime Museum in London, by the award of the Caird North America Research Fellowship, which generously provided the travel, subsistence and accommodation funds for a three-month research visit to the United States. The dissertation could not have been completed without access to the extensive Brown and Ives Correspondence held in the John Carter Brown Library on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. I was particularly grateful for the help of Mrs Sylvia Brown, a member of the Brown family of Providence and London, who took time from her own research to point me in the right direction. Memories of profitable time spent in the MacMillan Reading Room of the JCBL will be lifelong. The friendly help, not only of Director Dr Ted Widmer and the staff, notably that of Rick Ring, Reference Librarian, but 4 also from the international group of other Research Fellows, is still greatly appreciated. The whole visit was very productive, and hugely enjoyable. My wife and I remain grateful for the generous hospitality of the people we met in Providence, R.I., especially that of Rick and Roxanne Sasse, for much transport, including sailing from Newport into Buzzard's Bay, and some unforgettable meals. My thanks are due to the staff of the Rockerfeller and John Hay libraries in Providence, and especially to Philip Weimerskirk, keeper of Special Collections in Providence Public Library, for his help and flexible closing times. Also, to those of the New York Historical Society, Washington's Library of Congress, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Library in New London, Connecticut, and the Research Library of the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Such willing help and hospitality made the War of 1812 seem even more regrettable. I am grateful for the patient forbearance of each generation of my family, who have borne my obsession with stoicism. Most of all, however, my thanks are due to my wife, without whose active encouragement and support this dissertation would have remained an ambition. ABSTRACT This study examines the evolution of offensive and defensive maritime economic warfare, and the Royal Navy's use of commercial and naval blockades and mercantile convoys during successive wars, particularly its successful use by Britain in the Anglo-American war of 1812-15. Its legality, tactical and strategic development and contemporary government policy, including impressment are studied. Comparison is made of the nature and development of the British and American economies, their vulnerability to economic warfare and the expediency of its use by Britain against the United States discussed. Legal and practical constraints upon British convoys and blockades are studied and practical solutions reviewed. Economic aspects of the causes, conduct and effects of the war are surveyed, including the impact of Britain's commercial blockade on American commercial, fiscal, financial, economic and political infrastructures, and therefore the United States ability and preparedness to continue fighting. The effectiveness of the naval blockade supplementing Britain's commercial blockade of the United States, is also assessed. The long-standing problem of the relative effects of British commercial blockade and the at times contemporaneous American legislative 'restrictive system', is resolved by comparison of current New England commodity prices at specific times. Prices before the repeal of Madison's second Embargo are compared with subsequent prices, and with those after the British blockades are later extended to neutral trade with New England. The effectiveness of British economic warfare on the American economy under two successive commanders is evaluated. An objective assessment of the strategy's eventual impact on the war's outcome and later policies is made, and of how far each belligerent's war aims were met by the negotiated peace. The effectiveness of Britain's use of economic warfare against the United States has long been seriously under-estimated. CONTENTS Contents Page Declaration 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 6 List of Tables 9 Map 1: The Atlantic, Eastern Seaboard, Gulf of Mexico & 11 Caribbean. Map 2: Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River. 12 Note on US Dollar/Pound Sterling Conversion Rate 1803-15 13 Introduction 14 Chapter 1 Convoys and Blockades: The Evolution of 23 Maritime Economic Warfare. Chapter 2 Constraints and Solutions. 61 Chapter 3 Britain and the United States: Developing 92 Economies in Peace and War. Chapter 4 Implementation 1: The United States Blockaded. 125 The United Command of Sir John Borlase Warren. Chapter 5 Implementation 2: The United States Blockaded 207 The North American Command of Sir Alexander Cochrane. Chapter 6 The Impact of the British Blockades under 237 Admiral Warren. Chapter 7 Capital, Credit, Capacity and Trade: the Final 292 Phase of Economic Warfare. Conclusions: 370 Abreviations used in References 379 References: Introduction. 380 References: Chapter 1 382 References: Chapter 2 389 References: Chapter 3 396 References: Chapter 4 402 References: Chapter 5 415 References: Chapter 6 421 References: Chapter 7 432 References: Conclusions 449 Appendix A: Maritime Tables 451 Appendix B: Economic History Tables 469 Bibliography: Primary Source Material 509 Bibliography: Secondary Source Material 516 8 LIST OF TABLES Appendix A A 1 Royal Naval Prizes taken into Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1812-15. A 2 (a) Named American Vessels Blockaded, taken or destroyed by December 1813. A 2 (b) Named American Vessels Blockaded, taken or destroyed by July 1814. A 3 Ships and Vessels on West Indian & American Stations, 7 August 1812. A 4 Desciption of Ships on the North American Station, 26 July 1814. Appendix B Table 1 United States Imports 1800 - 15. Table 2 Availabilty of United States Import Statistics. Table 3 Computed or Declared U.K. Oversaes Trade 1796 - 1814. Table 4 United States Net Customs Revenue 1809-1814. Table 5 United States National Debt 1805-1815. Table 6 U.S. Total Receipts & Expenditure 1812-13. Table 7 Boston Sugar Prices 1813-1815. Table 8 Boston Molassess Prices 1813-1814. Table 9 Boston Muscavado Sugar Prices 1813-1814. Table 10 Boston Average Coffee Prices 1813-1814. Table 11 Boston Average Hyson Tea Prices 1812- 1814. Table 12 Boston Average Souchon Tea Prices 1812-1814. Table 13 Boston Average Other Tea Prices 1812 1813. Table 14 Index Numbers of 116 U.S. Monthly Wholesale Commodity Prices 1807-1819. Table 15 Index Numbers of U.S. Wholesale Commodity Prices Variable Group Weights. Table 16 United States Exports 1805 - 1815. Table 17 Total Forgein Trade Imports & Exports Combined 1805 - 1815. Table 18 Merchant Shipping Tonnage in U.S. Foreign Trade 1807 - 1815. Table 19 Tonnage of U.S. Merchant Shipping, Registered, Enrolled & Employed 1813-1814. Table 20 U.S. Tax Revenue, Miscellaneous Receipts & Expenditure 1812-15. Table 21 Yields of U.S. Direct Tax & Internal Excise Duties 1814-1815. Table 22 U.S.Total Tax Revenue & Total Receipts as Percentage of Total Expenditure 1812-1815. Table 23 Prices of U.S.New & Old 6% Stock in Philadelphia 1812 -1815.