Their trade with the colonies of other powers, as well as with those of England, was prohibited; and in all the ports of Europe they encountered regulations which were extremely embarrassing.

From the Mediterranean, they were excluded by the Barbary powers, whose hostility they had no force to subdue, and whose friendship they had no money to purchase.
Thus, the characteristic enterprise of their merchants, which, in better times, has displayed their flag in every ocean, was then in a great measure restrained from exerting itself by the scantiness of their means.

These commercial difficulties suggested the idea of compelling Great Britain to relax the rigour of her system, by opposing it with regulations equally restrictive; but to render success in such a conflict possible, it was necessary that the whole power of regulating commerce should reside in a single legislature.
Few were so sanguine as to hope that thirteen independent governments, jealous of each other, could be induced to concur for a length of time, in measures capable of producing the desired effect.

With many, therefore, the desire of counteracting a system which appeared to them so injurious, triumphed over their attachment to state sovereignty; and the converts to the opinion that congress ought to be empowered to regulate trade, were daily multiplied.

Meanwhile, the United States were unremitting in their endeavours to form commercial treaties in Europe.