To ‘the most distant parts of the Globe’: Trade, Politics, and the Maritime Frontier in the Early Republic Randall Nelson Flaherty Belmont, Massachusetts A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Virginia December 2014 Peter Onuf S. Max Edelson Alan Taylor Jeffery Jenkins Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………...6 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Chapter 1: For Town, Commerce, and Empire: The Atlantic Commerce of Salem, Massachusetts, 1763-1768……......…………………………………………………………….. 24 Chapter 2: Nonimportation and Independence………………………………………………….. 70 Chapter 3: Armed Commerce and Adaptations of Trade during the American Revolution…...126 Chapter 4: The Atlantic Origins of Early American Trade to the Indian Ocean………………. 167 Chapter 5: Neutrality and the Problem of the Jay Treaty in the Indian Ocean………………… 220 Chapter 6: A Wise or Ruinous Measure? Party Politics of the Embargo Crisis, 1807-1809….. 265 Chapter 7: The Rise of the American System and the Fall of Commercial Salem…………….. 316 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………………... 372 Bibliography.……………………………………………………………………………….......376 Abstract To ‘the most distant parts of the Globe’: Trade, Politics, and the Maritime Frontier in the Early Republic This dissertation explores how capital-poor American traders harnessed navigational information and commercial knowledge to expand the geography of American foreign commerce from the late colonial period to the close of the Napoleonic Wars. American traders like those in the mid-level port of Salem, Massachusetts, who form the focus of this project, recognized that overcoming their knowledge deficit about navigation and foreign markets would be faster than overcoming their capital shortages or the economies of scale in larger ports like Boston, and they structured the geography of their maritime commerce to maximize the acquisition of market and route-based information. By the 1780s, Salem traders drew on their longstanding Atlantic commercial strategies to trade in new Indian Ocean markets as they had traded for centuries in the Caribbean, on circuitous voyages that they modified en route as they gathered new information about surrounding markets. They deliberately constructed broad and diverse commercial geographies not tied exclusively to British, French, or even European markets. This work redraws the map of early American foreign commerce, particularly American neutral trade, by foregrounding American circuitous trade across regions and across political boundaries and by highlighting American dependence on hubs of commercial information like Mauritius in the Indian Ocean that fell outside of major and well-studied shipping centers like London or Calcutta. Protecting access to information as a means to enhance the ability of American traders to compete and capitalize on new commercial opportunities, rather than simple Anglophilic or Francophilic sentiment, lay at the core of American commercial interests throughout the colonial and early national periods, particularly as places like Mauritius became the contested spaces in the American debate over neutrality and the union’s place in international geopolitics. This commercial context and this new explanation of how American neutral trade operated provides essential background for understanding the meaning and the stakes of early national debates over American political economy that lay at the heart of the union-building project. Acknowledgements I first came to the University of Virginia to work with Peter Onuf, and I have learned more from him in these past seven years than I ever imagined. Despite his rigorous work and travel schedule, Peter has always been ready with keen insight and encouragement whenever I come calling. I am eternally grateful for his advising and for the wonderful community of early American historians that he has fostered at UVa. My dissertation and my growth as a scholar owe a great deal to the guidance and the examples set by my other committee members, Max Edelson, Alan Taylor, and Jeffery Jenkins. Max in particular has helped shepherd my dissertation forward over the years with his feedback on my chapters and his enthusiasm for digital mapping that encouraged me to incorporate GIS maps into my own project. Alan agreed to join my committee after only recently arriving at Virginia. His insightful comments have helped me clarify the goals of my dissertation and produce a more coherent narrative of Salem’s history. Also at UVa, the Atlantic History class I took with Joe Miller changed the way I think about history, and I hope I never deviate from the high standard he sets for historical inquiry. I am thankful for the guidance I received from other faculty members in the UVa history department, including John Stagg, Michael Holt, Gary Gallagher, Patrick Griffin, Charles McCurdy, and Sophia Rosenfeld. At UVa I have always been surrounded by sharp and supportive graduate students who have provided me thoughtful and productive feedback throughout my graduate career. I am grateful in particular for the camaraderie of Whitney Martinko, Nicholas Wood, and Michael Caires, fine scholars and terrific friends. Members of the UVa Early American Seminar and the UVa-Edinburgh Transatlantic Seminar have given me helpful feedback on many occasions, especially Frank Cogliano, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Lawrence Hatter, Martin Öhman, Christa Dierksheide, Frank Garmon, Jason Farr, Kate Brown, George Van Cleve, and Gaye Wilson. As an undergraduate, the experiences and perspective I gained during a semester in the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program at Mystic Seaport inspired me to pursue an advanced degree to study maritime history. The Williams-Mystic Program’s enthusiasm for hands-on learning and its dedication to building a strong interdisciplinary community continue to drive me as a historian and as a person. I learned a great deal in particular from Jim Carlton, Glenn Gordinier, and Jennifer Speelman. Grants and fellowships during my graduate work have provided cherished time away from teaching to think, travel and research, and write. Thank you to the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, the American Historical Association, the Atlantic History Seminar at Harvard University, the American Antiquarian Society, the International Center for Jefferson Studies, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Mystic Seaport, the University of Virginia Society of Fellows, and the Virginia Center for Digital History. I was very lucky to receive a fellowship from the Scholars’ Lab at the University of Virginia to learn and explore GIS tools for use in my dissertation. My work with Kelly Johnston and Chris Gist made my dissertation stronger, and I am thankful to them. In addition, the down-to-earth but insanely smart Scholars’ Lab community was a fantastic introduction to the world of digital humanities. As I pursued my interest in digital tools for the study of history, I was lucky to enjoy the support of Thomas Fooks, a UVa alumnus with a creative and inspired mind that never quit. Tom believed that academics, with their high standards for inquiry and debate, should lead the movement to incorporate digital tools into the study of humanities, and I am one person among many at UVa who benefitted from Tom’s generous support for digital humanities. I spent many, many days researching in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, and yet I feel like I only scratched the surface of the wealth of amazing records held at that archive. I am particularly grateful for the assistance and the archival knowledge of Kathy Flynn and Irene Axelrod who were essential allies in completing my Salem research. I am blessed with wonderfully supportive friends and family. For all their encouragement along the way, I am grateful to Garry Adelman, RaeAnne Caires, Julianne Gauron, Kathryn Mackintosh, Rachel Millstein, Stephen Swisdak, and Alison Wood. Thanks to Linda and Katherine Flaherty for their constant care and attention to the Charlottesville branch of the family. My sister Anne kept me fueled with her baking and inspires me, as she always has, with her adventurous spirit. My daughter Charlotte gave me new energy to finish when she arrived in 2013, and she has never lacked for a smile and giggle ever since. Endless thanks to my husband David, a partner in life and in dissertating, a wonderful father to our Charlotte, and always a willing and sharp editor. I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Betsy and Fielding Lewis, who first introduced me to the wonders of the ocean. They are my models for dedication, generosity, and love. Abbreviations AAS American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts JSPCL Joseph Story Papers, Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan JSPLOC Joseph Story Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC MHS Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts NARA National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC NARA-Waltham National Archives and Records Administration, Waltham, Massachusetts NDAR Naval Documents of the American Revolution PEM Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts PFB1 The Papers of Governor Bernard, Volume 1 PRO British National Archives, Kew, London, United Kingdom TPP Timothy Pickering Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society