To the adventurous and not over-scrupulous men who followed it, privateering was a congenial pursuit--so much so, unhappily, that when the war ended, and a treaty robbed their calling of its guise of lawfulness, too many of them still continued it, braving the penalties of piracy for the sake of its gains.
But during the period of the Revolution privateering did the struggling young nation two services--it sorely harassed the enemy, and it kept alive the seafaring zeal and skill of the New Englanders.
For a time it seemed that not all this zeal and skill could replace the maritime interests where they were when the Revolution began.

For most people in the colonies independence meant a broader scope of activity--to the shipowner and sailor it meant new and serious limitations.

England was still engaged in the effort to monopolize ocean traffic by the operation of tariffs and navigation laws.

New England having become a foreign nation, her ships were denied admittance to the ports of the British West Indies, with which for years a nourishing trade had been conducted.
Lumber, corn, fish, live stock, and farm produce had been sent to the islands, and coffee, sugar, cotton, rum, and indigo brought back.

This commerce, which had come to equal L3,500,000 a year, was shut off by the British after American independence, despite the protest of Pitt, who saw clearly that the West Indians would suffer even more than the Americans.
Time showed his wisdom.