Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/394

 the active enterprise of the American merchants and shipowners was constantly on the alert in looking abroad to every part of the world for a market, and if it was anywhere to be found, or if there existed only a reasonable presumption that it might be found, the farmer was thereby secured a ready vent for his produce. Perhaps the calculation of the merchant might be disappointed, perhaps not even a freight would be earned, and he might be ruined; nevertheless, this misfortune did not reach the farmer, who had secured the benefit of a good market. But, in the event of American vessels disappearing, he must then be left at the mercy of chance adventurers for a market; and when the demand is not very great, the price of the freight would be deducted from the article itself. This serious contingency, it was argued, must tend necessarily to lessen essentially the value of the farmer's produce. As nothing less than the total annihilation of the American merchant navy was anticipated, it was pointed out to the mechanic that those numerous bodies connected with shipbuilding, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the sail-maker, the rope-maker, and others would of course all be thrown out of employment; their labour would be neither wanted nor paid for. The American ships, being, under these circumstances, banished from their native shores, would no longer furnish a nursery for seamen, but that valuable class of citizens would be driven to seek for their bread in other countries, and finally, in any future European wars which might supervene, and which were constantly liable to happen, the American people would find themselves denuded of seamen and ships, and