Report on the Trade and Commerce of the British North American Colonies and Upon the Trade of the Great Lakes and Rivers.....(Two Volumes)
Washington, DC: U.S. Government, 1853. 1st Edition. 8vo. Good. Item #18740
An extremely rare complete set of this important pre-Civil War report on the trade affecting the Great Lakes and North American waterways, including the all-important volume of maps.
Two volumes complete. Volume I 906pp of text + errata slip. Countless charts expanding on the health of the American economy as it pertains to domestic and international trade, covering a wide array of categories. Vol. I - Brown cloth, embossed in blind. Square tight binding. Clean interior. Rubbing and edge wear, including a chip to the lower spine. Foxing to endpapers and outer pages. Volume II, the map volume, with four large fold-out maps. Maps lightly tanned with a few closed tears, edge wear, and holes at paper fold intersections. Conservation tapes has been used to repair some of the separations.
Overall a fairly well-preserved example of this extremely scarce set. Presents handsomely in archival.
"Although an American, Israel de Wolfe Andrews had close family ties with British North America through his grandmother and father. As a youth he engaged in a trade “which consisted more or less of smuggling,” and its inconveniences impressed him with the desirability of moulding North American economic relations in conformity with geography.
"Appointed United States consul in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1843, Andrews observed the problems of trade and fishing which were plaguing Anglo-American relations, and which were not ameliorated until the passing of the reciprocity treaty of 1854. Andrews was instrumental in shaping that treaty by defining what was eventually its content, by assisting its negotiation, and by working for its ratification. The basic American demands which later formed the matrix of the treaty were elaborated by Andrews as early as 1848 in a letter addressed to the American secretary of state, James Buchanan. When the projet for the treaty was finally drawn up in 1853 by Secretary of State William L. Marcy and the British minister in Washington, Sir John F. T. Crampton, Andrews was present. His most vigorous efforts were devoted to getting the treaty ratified. He sought to mould a favourable attitude in Congress through two reports on trade which, as a special agent to the Treasury Department, he was commissioned to compile. He endeavoured to affect relevant segments of opinion by seeing that articles sympathetic to reciprocity were placed in key journals, and by exercising his persuasive efforts with influential members of the executive branch of the American government. When the treaty was ready for ratification, he exerted pressure on persons in the Maritime provinces, including William Hayden Needham and Moses Henry Perley*, whose willingness to accept American fishing demands would be crucial. He also worked indefatigably to marshal support for ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate during the summer of 1854." - Canadian Biography.
Price: $600.00