Embargo Dbq

In the midst of the Napoleonic War between Great Britain and France, the United States found it’s self in a strange positon. While it had declared neutrality during the war, the warring nations imposed several sanctions on the U.S. Great Brittan began taking U.S sailors as hostages and forcing them to work in the British Royal Navy, which you can imagine would have greatly helped Brittan’s war effort against France by building up its naval power. In effect, it was the United Stated that was losing on all fronts, from the hijacking of American ships to the loss of American sailors, president Jefferson decided to take action. Instead of engaging in warfare, which can be quite costly, President Jefferson decided it was in the nation’s best interest …show more content…
With the embargo in place Americans could no longer rely on inexpensive British manufactured goods, therefore American manufactures began to experiment with replicating British goods. As Frankel asserts, “there is historical evidence that Americans were remarkably successful in 1808 at switching into the production of manufactured goods when they were cut off from their usual source of supply.” The city of Philadelphia took the initiative of expanding manufacturing to include the replication of British made goods .The stimulus of the embargo to domestic manufacturers in Philadelphia was widely and favorably noted at the time. . The city of Philadelphia did well during the embargo, because manufacturing production expanded in such goods as carpets, cloth (from bedspreads to stockings), earthenware, glass, soap, lead and shot, and chemicals. Other evidence suggests that domestic manufacturers elsewhere did not necessarily prosper during the embargo. Textile manufacturers in New England suffered considerably with the sudden collapse of trade. According to Ware, these findings tend “to destroy the theory that it was the embargo which, by cutting off foreign competition and throwing out of employment labor and capital, gave the impetus and protection to the American industry which enabled it to become firmly established. . . . By striking at the prosperity of the commercial elements of the New England coast towns, it destroyed the purchasing power of the cotton manufacturers’ chief market.” Ware arguments convey the challenges facing an interconnected economy, where recovering is merely impossible, especially for a new and upcoming countries like the United States that depends exclusively on foreign trading partners for vital consumer goods. Taking a closer look at Ware’s argument, we have to ask weather substitution to British imported goods in the