Manual of Ship Subsidies

Manual of Ship Subsidies

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Title: Manual of Ship Subsidies
Author: Edwin M. Bacon
Release Date: October 11, 2004 [eBook #13718]
Language: English
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MANUAL OF SHIP SUBSIDIES
An Historical Summary of the Systems of All Nations
by
EDWIN M. BACON, A.M.
1911

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
PREFACE I INTRODUCTORY II GREAT BRITAIN III FRANCE IV
GERMANY V HOLLAND-BELGIUM VI AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

VII ITALY VIII SPAIN-PORTUGAL IX
DENMARK-NORWAY-SWEDEN X RUSSIA XI JAPAN-CHINA
XII SOUTH AMERICA XIII THE UNITED STATES XIV
SUMMARY INDEX

PREFACE
The intent of this little book is to furnish in compact form the history of
the development of the ship subsidies systems of the maritime nations
of the world, and an outline of the present laws or regulations of those
nations. It is a manual of facts and not of opinions. The author's aim has
been to present impartially the facts as they appear, without color or
prejudice, with a view to providing a practical manual of information
and ready reference. He has gathered the material from documentary
sources as far as practicable, and from recognized authorities,
American and foreign, on the general history of the rise and progress of
the mercantile marine of the world as well as on the special topic of
ship subsidies. These sources and authorities are named in the footnotes,
and volume and page given so that reference can easily be made to
them for details impossible to give in the contracted space to which this
manual is necessarily confined.
E.M.B.
BOSTON, MASS. September 1, 1911.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The term subsidy, defined in the dictionaries as a Government grant in
aid of a commercial enterprise, is given different shadings of meaning
in different countries. In all, however, except Great Britain, it is broadly
accepted as equivalent to a bounty, or a premium, open or concealed,
directly or indirectly paid by Government to individuals or companies
for the encouragement or fostering of the trade or commerce of the
nation granting it.
Ship subsidies are in various forms: premiums on construction of

vessels; navigation bounties; trade bounties; fishing bounties; postal
subsidies for the carriage of ocean mails; naval subventions;
Government loans on low rates of interest.
In Great Britain they comprise postal subsidies and naval subventions,
ostensibly payments for oversea and colonial mail service exclusively,
or compensation for such construction of merchant ships under the
Admiralty regulations as will make them at once available for service
as armed cruisers and transports. They are assumed to be not bounties
in excess of the actual value of the service performed, with the real
though concealed object of fostering the development of British
overseas navigation. Still, notwithstanding this assumption, such has
been their practical effect.
Their original objects when first applied to steamship service, as
defined by a Parliamentary committee in 1853, were--"to afford us
rapid, frequent, and punctual communications with distant ports which
feed the main arteries of British commerce, and with the most
important of our foreign possessions; to foster maritime enterprise; and
to encourage the production of a superior class of vessels, which would
promote the convenience and wealth of the country in time of peace,
and assist in defending its shores against hostile aggression." To foster
British commerce they have undeniably been employed to meet and
check foreign competition on the seas, as the record shows.
In the United States they have taken the form of postal subsidies openly
granted for the two-fold purpose of the transportation of the ocean
mails in American-built and American-owned ships, and the
encouragement of American shipbuilding and ship-using.

CHAPTER II
GREAT BRITAIN
England has never granted general ship-construction or navigation
bounties except in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Under Elizabeth

Parliament offered a bounty of five shillings per ton to every ship
above one hundred tons burden; and under James I that law was
revived, with the bounty applying only to vessels of two hundred tons
or over.[A]
A policy of Government favoritism to shipping, however, began far
back in the dim ninth century with Alfred the Great. Under the
inspiration of this Saxon of many virtues, his people increased the
number of English merchant vessels and laid the foundation for the
creation and maintenance of a royal navy.[B] The Saxon Athelstan,
Alfred's grandson, whose attention to commerce was also marked,