She had formed a part of the British colonial system.

All her normal trade was with the mother country or with other British colonies.

Now her privileges in such trade were at an end, and she must seek as a favour that which had formerly been hers as a member of the British Empire.

The direct trade between England and America was easily and quickly resumed, for the commercial classes of both nations desired it and profited by it.

But the British colonial system prohibited trade between a foreign state and British colonies and there was one channel of trade, to and from the British West Indies, long very profitable to both sides, during colonial times, but now legally hampered by American independence.