Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/260

 arisen on the other side of the Atlantic which in three quarters of a century afterwards rivalled, and at one time surpassed in number, and especially in symmetry and speed, the finest merchantmen of any of the countries of the Old World.

In noting the progress of British merchant shipping during the earlier portion of the reign of George III., the dates at which the war with the colonies broke out, and when peace was finally concluded, must be remembered, as open hostilities did not actually commence until 1774, though for some years previously a state of non-intercourse had existed. The revolted colonies might possibly then have been retained as reluctant subjects for some years longer, had not the French, in 1778, espoused their cause with the object of striking a blow at the increasing maritime power of England. In the following year Spain also threw her weight into the scale against her, and finally the Dutch, in 1781, contributed to swell the number of her maritime foes. With three such nations in arms against her British shipping, clearing outwards and inwards from her ports, had fallen, in 1782, to 615,150 tons, while there were in that year 225,456 tons of foreign clearances; but, in 1785, such has ever been the elasticity of her commerce, the entries inwards and outwards reached 1,182,346 tons, of which only 107,484 tons were foreign vessels.