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Memorandum for Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 31 January] 1791

Memorandum for Thomas Jefferson

[ca. 31 January 1791]1

				At war					At Peace
G. Britain from	May	1689 to Sept.	1697	=	8y.	4.m.	to May	1702	=	4y.	8.m.
	May	1702 to Aug.	1712	=	10.	3.	to Decr.	1718	=	6.	4.
	Decr.	1718 to June	1721	=	2.	6	to Mar.	1727	=	5.	8
	Mar.	1727 to May	1727	=	0.	2	to Octr.	1739	=	12.	4
	Octr.	1739 to May	1748	=	8.	7	to June	1755	=	7.	0
	June	1755 to Novr.	1762	=	7.	5	to June	1778	=	15.	7
	June	1778 to Mar.	1783	=	4.	9	to May	1789	=	6.	2
											3. lost in broken months

					42.	War				58.	peace2

Altho’ these estimates
are from an Underwriter
it may be well to consult
Mr. T. C3 or others, on
them.

During war Insurance	between	U. S. & G. B. may be rated	from 12 to 20	PerCt.
	do.	U. S. & W. Inds.	from 12 to 20	do.
During peace		U. S. & G. B	about 2½	do.
		U. S. & W. Inds.	abt. 2½	do.
During war increase of freight beyond that of peace from 30 to 50 PerCt.

*The annual	value	of exports from U. S. to G. B. in British Bottoms	=	Dollars4
	Freight	of do. from do. in do. to Europe	=	do.
	do.	of do. from do. in do. to W. Inds	=	do.
Annual value of Imports in Brit: Bottoms (see Champion p. 51)5			=	do.
(See Report of Impost & the 10 PerCt. discount in favr. of Amer. Botts.)6

From these data result the expence of Insurance & freight taxed by Brit: wars on the trade or rather agriculture of U. S. during their present dependence on British Bottoms7
From the same may be inferred the loss which war with Spain wd. have cost the U. S. During the prospect of it insurance in some instances rose to near double the peace rate.8
To the wars of the above Period, France was with little exception a party. So was Holland, excluding the war preceding the last. So in fact were the maritime nations in Genl.
Perhaps it may be easiest to make the calculation for all our trade in Foreign Bottoms, than for that in British alone: or expedient to superadd the former to the latter calculation.9

Ms (DLC: Jefferson Papers); FC (DLC). Both in JM’s hand. At the head of the FC, JM wrote at a later time: “Made for Mr. Jefferson, when preparing his report for Congress.” Important variations between the Ms and FC are noted below. On the dating of this document, see n. 1.

1. In the most recent archival arrangement of JM’s papers, the FC was placed under date of 16 Dec. 1793 (see Index to the James Madison Papers under “Madison, J—Trade in Peace & War”). This date was based on the assumption that the memorandum relates to Jefferson’s Report on Commercial Privileges and Restrictions of that date. JM himself may have made this assumption when endorsing the FC late in life. It is clear, however, that the information in this memorandum was first employed by the secretary of state in his Report on the American Fisheries of 1 Feb. 1791. He incorporated the substance of it in appendix no. 18 of that report (Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (19 vols. to date; Princeton, 1950—). description ends , XIX, 236).

2. This table is not in the FC, where JM merely lists the totals (which differ slightly from those in the Ms): 42 years and 6 months at war, 57 years and 6 months at peace.

3. Tench Coxe.

4. Jefferson filled in the blanks in appendix no. 18 (Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (19 vols. to date; Princeton, 1950—). description ends , XIX, 236).

5. Champion, Considerations on the Present Situation (2d ed., 1784). See Notes for Speech in Congress, ca. 13 May 1790, for JM’s previous references to this work. On pages 51–52 Champion records the prewar value of British goods imported into the American colonies as £2,943,000 sterling.

6. JM referred to abstracts of the import duties from 1 Aug. to 30 Sept. 1789, and from 1 Oct. 1789 to 1 Sept. 1790, which Secretary Hamilton communicated to the House on 7 Jan. 1791 (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, 1832–61). description ends , Finance, I, 89).

7. In appendix no. 18 Jefferson calculates the annual additional expense to be $3,250,000 (Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (19 vols. to date; Princeton, 1950—). description ends , XIX, 236).

8. The FC reads: “During the late question between G. B. & Spain, insurance rose in some instances to double or nearly double that of peace, being a tax at the rate of dollrs. per annm. Had war taken place we see the tax which wd. have been imposed by our dependence on Brit: Bottoms.”

9. The FC reads: “The Calculation may be extended to the whole of our trade in foreign bottoms.”

Authorial notes

[The following note(s) appeared in the margins or otherwise outside the text flow in the original source, and have been moved here for purposes of the digital edition.]

* Champion p. 140.

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: Memorandum for Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 31 January] 1791
Author: Madison, James
Date: 31 January 1791

Reference

Cite as: “Memorandum for Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 31 January] 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-13-02-0276. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 13, 20 January 1790 – 31 March 1791, ed. Charles F. Hobson and Robert A. Rutland. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981, pp. 362–364.]