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. . . distinctions, the wise would lament that the union had not been formed before. Wherefore, the present time is the true time for establishing it. THOMAS PAINE, COMMON SENSE, http://vvww.constitution.org/civ/comsense.htm (emphasis added). available at In the struggle to gain ratification of the Constitution, the need for free trade between the states was raised again and again as a rationale for a strong federal government. Alexander Hamilton wrote: IN ADDITION to the defects already enumerated in the existing federal system, there are others of not less importance, which concur in rendering it altogether unfit for the administration of the affairs of the Union. The want of a power to regulate commerce is by all parties allowed to be of the number. . . . It is indeed evident, on the most superficial view, that there is no object, either as it respects the interests of trade or finance, that more strongly demands a federal superintendence. The want of it has already operated as a bar to the formation of beneficial treaties with foreign powers, and has given occasions of dissatisfaction between the States. THE FEDERALIST No. 22, at 143-44 (Alexander Hamilton) (Clinton Rossiter ed., 1961). Not surprisingly, James Madison concurred: The defect of power in the existing Confederacy to regulate the commerce between its several members, . . . [has] been clearly pointed out by experience. To the proofs and remarks which former papers have brought into view on this subject, it may be added that without this supplemental provision, the great and essential power of regulating foreign commerce would have been incomplete and ineffectual. A very material object of this power was the relief of the States which import and export through other States, from the improper contributions levied on them by the latter. Were these at liberty to regulate the trade between State and State, it must be foreseen that ways would be found out to load the articles of import and export, during the passage through their jurisdiction, with duties which would fall on the makers of the latter and the consumers of the former. We may be assured by past experience, that such a practice would be introduced by future contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human affairs, that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not improbably terminate in serious interruptions of the public tranquillity. ld., No. 42 at 267-68 (James Madison). Hamilton had already put the point succinctly: "A unity of commercial, as well as political, interests, can only result from a unity of government." ld., No. 11 at 89 (Alexander Hamilton). Hamilton's equation of 3