The departure of a number of British Loyalists from America to the Maritimes, in combination with increasing trade ties with the New England states, served to create a climate of friendship and mutual co-operation between merchants in the northeast on both sides of the border.

 The merchants, you see, understood that it was in their interest to work together and profit from political strife in Europe.

 The ongoing Napoleonic Wars meant that there was a constant demand, from both the French and British Crowns, for imported goods from the Americas, particularly when it came to foodstuffs.

 As such, merchants in Nova Scotia's port communities, such as Liverpool, enjoyed brisk business as a nearby destination for their American neighbours' goods during the introductory years of the 19th century.

 But all that threatened to change in 1807.

 Early that year, both Britain and France issued declarations stating that any vessels belonging to a third-party country caught in the act of transporting goods to the opposing power was liable to be attacked.

 The introduction of such a policy threatened American shipping interests which had, up until that point, been able to supply goods, foods, arms - virtually any kind of support - to either side in the Napoleonic conflict without fear of being assaulted.

 In response to the declaration, the American government, with overwhelming support of Congress and the Senate, issued an Embargo Act on December 22 of 1807.

 The act stated "That an embargo be and is hereby laid on all ships and vessels in the ports and places within the jurisdiction of the United States or not cleared, bound to any foreign port or place, except vessels under the immediate direction of the President of the United States … Vessels with goods from an American port must give bond to re-land the goods within the United States."

 Though not conveyed in the clearest terms, the act effetory.

 Any foreign vessel - British, French or otherwise - that took on goods at an American port would only be permitted to leave port if it was willing to pay a bond equal to double the value of the cargo on board. The bond would only be repaid once the cargo was landed at another American port.

 President Thomas Jefferson, who spearheaded the legislation, believed that without the support of American goods, Britain would run short on supplies and be forced to reinstate American shipping neutrality, after which the United States would gladly begin selling its wares to the European marketplace again.

 Needless to say, such legislation upset traders and merchants both in the New England states and in the Maritime provinces. And, as a result, many took it into their own hands to openly challenge the legislation in defiance of the American government.

 One of those men was Liverpool's John More.

 Early in 1808, fuelled by simple economics - the price of flour, for example, in many locales had risen to nearly $26 a barrel, a mammoth sum - More was approached by Snow Parker, Esq., to take a sloop to Maine in an attempt to acquire a cargo of fruit and flour at minimal cost.

 More agreed to the venture and, joined only by a Portuguese crew mate named Antonio Silver and a cabin boy, the sloop departed Liverpool bound for Portland, Maine.

 Upon arriving south of the border, More was happy to find that American merchants were very obliging. As it turned out, a number of traders had been stuck with a surplus of goods - items that would normally have found their way to the Maritime market on British vessels.

 Acquiring the cargo of fruit and flour, however, proved to be the easy part for More. While a number of merchants were willing to sell cargo despite the embargo imposed by their own government, American government agents were less willing to let More leave port without a fuss.

 Just out of Portland on the return trip, a revenue cutter honed in on More's sloop. Pulling up alongside, the revenue agents and the unrelenting Nova Scotian captain had a fierce exchange of words.

 The dialogue ended abruptly when More pointed out that, while his sloop was not heavily armed, he was more than willing to employ his musket, pistol and a blunderbuss in order to ensure a safe return to British-controlled waters.

 Any attempt to board his vessel, More said, would be met with force.

 Evidently disturbed by the challenge, the crew on the revenue cutter elected not to pursue John More's sloop, and the three-man crew was able to return to Liverpool with her cargo fully intact.

 It was a haul that netted a pretty price back at home.

 But John More wasn't the only man out of Liverpool to run the American Embargo of 1807. Capt. Stephen Collins also devised his own cunning means of acquiring goods for resale in the Nova Scotia marketplace.

 Collins and his vessel were waiting wharfside at Boston, under the guise that they were to receive a number of passengers to travel with him northward to Nova Scotia.

 Such an occurrence was hardly out of place. A number of Americans felt compelled out of loyalty to the British Crown to remove themselves to many of Nova Scotia's communities - including Liverpool - during the Revolutionary War and for the years to follow.

 As such, there was little suspicion when Collins and his crew sought clearance to load their vessel with a full cargo of provisions guaranteed by law for the 40 passengers and crew expected to make the return trip to Nova Scotia.

 With the cargo loaded, all the crew need do was to wait for the arrival of the passengers, supposedly coming from Penobscot.

 The only man on board professing to be a passenger was one Mr. DeWolfe, who sat idly by, apparently waiting for his fellow passengers to arrive.

 As the day went on, however, still no other passengers had turned up dockside. With the time permitted for the vessel to depart rapidly dissipating, undoubtedly with the captain's "permission," Mr. DeWolfe bargained with the dockside officer in charge of overseeing the departure, and the cable holding Collins' vessel in place was mysteriously "slipped."

 With that, Collins' vessel, laden with provisions, was merrily on its way for Nova Scotia, as though the Embargo Act itself simply didn't exist.

 And, for many Americans, it was a very happy day one year later, in March of 1809, when the Embargo Act of 1807 officially ceased to exist.

 By that point, so many merchants had been stuck with goods they could not sell without access to the foreign markets that a great deal of economic damage had been done. Not only that, but the confrontational nature of the Embargo Act also helped the United States and Britain further down the garden path toward the War of 1812.

 So disastrous were the ultimate consequences of the Embargo Act of 1807 for the United States that a recent poll among eminent American historians rated it as the seventh greatest blunder in presidential history - ahead of both Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, and John F. Kennedy's failed Bay of Pigs Invasion.

 Sources: Licht, Walter, "Industrializing America: The Nineteenth Century"; More, James F., "The History of Queens County."

Written and researched by Patrick Hirtle.