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Excerpt from Ships and Shipping of Old New York: A Brief Account of the Interesting At the time the Dutch began colonizing the island of Manhattan their forty years' war for independence against Spain had drawn to a successful close, and they were the freest people in the world and unsurpassed in enterprise and intelligence. All nationalities and sects were, in theory at least, welcomed at Manhattan. By the year 1650 eighteen languages were there spoken, so that New Amster dam, or early New York, was then as cosmopolitan as the New York of to-day. This broad-minded tolerance, which was the universal Hollandish custom, attracted from Europe bold adventurers bent upon making their fortune. In spite of the interruption of the change from Dutch to English rule, in spite of the constant warfare of the eighteenth century and the British occupation during the Revolution, New York's commerce grew steadily. By 1800, eleven years after the adoption of the Constitution and the consequent establishment of a stable government, New York had outstripped its rivals, Boston and Philadelphia, and had taken the foremost place as the seat of American commerce, - a position she has never relinquished. The story of New York's trade begins in an era of daring voyages and strange perils, runs through years of romance and adventure; and reaches its culmination when the clipper ships of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia controlled the carrying trade of the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority