In the various and sundry rabbit holes down which I travel, I was poking around and learning about the colonial American economy and life then when I encountered an article about American ginseng and how plentiful it was in Vermont in particular, as well as the Appalachians and much of the eastern forests of the time.
In 1784, the first international trade our newly independent country conducted was with CHINA and included 30 tons of ginseng, as well as trapped furs, chests of Spanish silver and raw cotton.
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From somewhere on the internet …
“Following the American War for Independence, the United States had few profitable options for international commerce. Most European nations at the time had raised forbidding trade barriers and the British had cut off access of American ships from trading in the West Indies. America was struggling with extreme debt and financial hardship from the war and establishing itself as a world power.
In 1783, soon after the Peace Treaty with Britain was signed, The Empress of China, which had been a privateer clipper during the war, was refitted to become a trading ship. Its first journey masting the new flag of the United States would to be China.”
