The Trading Nation

The United States was born arguing about trade. The Revolution itself was ignited by commerce—taxes on tea, stamps, and sugar, and a colonial economy Britain treated as its private supplier. It is no accident that within months of winning independence, the new nation went looking for customers: in 1784 the merchant ship Empress of China sailed from New York for Canton, opening America's trade with Asia before the Constitution was even written. From that first voyage to today—when the United States commands roughly a quarter of global GDP with just 4 percent of the world's population—trade has been the quiet engine of American power.