In early days intercolonial commerce had been carried on mostly by water, and when war interfered commerce almost ceased for want of roads.

The loss of ocean highways, however, stimulated road building and led to what might be regarded as the first "good-roads movement" of the new nation, except that to our eyes it would be a misuse of the word to call any of those roads good.

But anything which would improve the means of transportation took on a patriotic tinge, and the building of roads and the cutting of canals were agitated until turnpike and canal companies became a favorite form of investment; and in a few years the interstate land trade had grown to considerable importance.

But in the meantime, water transportation was the main reliance, and with the end of the war the coastwise trade had been promptly resumed.

For a time it prospered; but the States, affected by the general economic conditions and by jealousy, tried to interfere with and divert the trade of others to their own advantage.