There would be a time for these questions; and then he should give his opinion upon them with firmness, and according to what he conceived to be the true interests of his country.

The regulation of commerce gave of itself sufficient scope for argument, without mixing it with extraneous matter.
After some general observations on the delicacy of the crisis, and on the claims of the resolutions to dispassionate investigation, he proceeded to consider the report on which they were founded.
The great object of that report being to establish a contrast between France and Britain, he would request the attention of the committee to an accurate statement of facts, which, being compared with the report, would enable them to decide on the justness of its inferences.
In the opinion that any late relaxations of the French republic were produced by interests too momentary and fluctuating to be taken as the basis of calculations for a permanent system, he should present a comparative view of the commerce of the United States to those countries, as it stood anterior to the revolution of France.

For this purpose, he produced a table which had been formed by a person whose commercial information was highly respectable, from which he said it would appear, notwithstanding the plaudits so generally bestowed on the justice and liberality of the one nation, and the reproaches uttered against the other, that, with the exception of the trifling article of fish oil, the commerce of the United States was not more favoured in France than in Great Britain, and was, in many important articles, more favoured by the latter power, than that of other nations.
Mr.Smith then reviewed, in detail, the advantages and disadvantages attending the sale of the great products of America in the ports of each nation, which, he conceived, were more encouraged by the British than by the French market.
A comparative statement, he added, of the value of the exports of the two countries, would assist in confirming this opinion.
The value of the exports to Great Britain, at the close of the year ending with September, 1789, was nearly double those made to France in the same period: and even the average of the years 1790, 1791 and 1792, gave an annual excess to the exports to Great Britain of three millions, seven hundred and fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty dollars.
The great amount of merchandise imported from Britain, instead of being a grievance, demonstrated, in the opinion of Mr.Smith, the utility of the trade with that country.

For the extent of the intercourse between the two nations, several obvious reasons might be assigned.

Britain was the first manufacturing country in the world, and was more able, than any other, to supply an assortment of those articles which were required in the United States.