Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy (Markets and Governments in Economic History)

by Douglas A. Irwin

the end, Jefferson believed that he had little choice but to opt for an embargo. “The alternative was between [the embargo] and war, and, in fact, it is the last card we have to play, short of war.”89 On December 18, 1807, Jefferson called on Congress to ban all American ships from departing to foreign ports.90 In effect, the president was calling for a stop to all foreign trade. The ostensible reason for doing so was to protect the country’s ships and sailors from British and French encroachments and deprive the belligerents of American goods, forcing them to change their policies. The decision to impose a trade embargo had its roots in the belief—which, as we saw in chapter 1, was only partially true—that the non-importation movement in the 1760s and 1770s had succeeded in changing British policy toward America. As they had in the early 1790s, Jefferson and Madison continued to believe that the United States possessed sufficient economic leverage to influence British policies.