1731-1763 Mobile commerce reverts to the control of the French crown. Mobile suffers a decline as a political and trade center. Mobile is transferred to British dominion at the Treaty of Paris. Mobile harbor is reopened to seagoing trade, employing the anchorage in the lower Bay. Major exports include indigo, hides, timber, lumber, naval stores, cattle, corn, tallow, bear's oil, rice, tobacco, myrtle wax, salted wild beef, salted fish, pecans, sassafras, and oranges.
Trade is now largely in the hands of private businesses.
1780 Bernardo de Galvez besieges and captures Mobile. Four ships of his Spanish convoy are lost on Mobile Bar. 1781-1813 Foreign commerce languishes under mercantilist Spanish government. The Indian trade is reorganized, with trade concessions granted to private firms. The ships did not participate, instead attacking Dauphin Island.