Manual of Ship Subsidies | Page 3

3) a convention establishing a "reciprocal liberty of
commerce," between the "territories of Great Britain in Europe and
those of the United States," was signed in London.[O] In 1824-1826
reciprocity treaties were entered into with various continental powers.
In 1827 (August 6) the treaty of 1815 with the United States was
renewed. In 1830 a treaty for regulating the commercial intercourse
between the British colonial possessions and the United States was
executed.[P] Under these conventions, repeatedly interrupted by British
Orders in Council and by Presidents' proclamations,[Q] the trading
intercourse between both countries was regulated till the abrogation of
the code of 1660.
In 1844 an indirect move against the code was made, with the
appointment of a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into
the working of the reciprocal treaties and the condition of the
mercantile marine of the country.[R]
At this period the competition of the United States in the overseas
carrying trade of the world was hard pressing England. The Americans
were building the best wooden ships, superior in model and

seaworthiness, the fastest sailers. They were leading in shipbuilding.
Much of the British shipping trade was carried on in American-built
vessels. The splendid American clipper ships were almost
monopolizing the carrying trade between Great Britain and the United
States. Most of the shipping of the world was yet in wooden bottoms.
Iron ships were in service, but iron-shipbuilding was in its infancy.
The Parliamentary inquiry of 1844 was followed up in 1847 with a
move openly against the ancient code. Its principles as they then stood,
essentially as in 1660, despite the multitude of regulating statutes, are
thus enumerated:
1. Certain named articles of European produce could only be imported
into the United Kingdom for consumption in British ships, or in ships
of the country of which the goods were the produce, or of the country
from which they were usually imported.
2. No produce of Asia, Africa, or America could be imported for
consumption into the United Kingdom from Europe in any ships; and
such produce could only be imported from any other place in British
ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods were the produce
and from which they were usually imported.
3. No goods could be carried coastwise from one part of the United
Kingdom to another in any but British ships.
4. No goods could be exported from the United Kingdom to any of the
British possessions in Asia, Africa, or America (with some exceptions
with regard to India) in any but British ships.
5. No goods could be carried from any one British possession in Asia,
Africa, or America, to another, nor from one part of such possession to
another part of the same, in any but British ships.
6. No goods could be imported into any British possession in Asia,
Africa, or America in any but British ships, or in ships of the country of
which the goods were the produce; provided, also, that such ships
brought the goods from that country.

7. No foreign ships were allowed to trade with any of the British
possessions unless they had been especially authorized to do so by an
Order in Council.
8. Powers were given to the Queen in Council which enabled her to
impose differential duties on the ships of any foreign country which did
the same with reference to British ships; and also to place restrictions
on importations from any foreign countries which placed restrictions on
British importations with such countries.
Finally, in 1849, with the adoption of the commercial policy founded
on freedom of trade, came the repeal of the restrictive code, excepting
only the rule as to the British coasting trade; and in 1854 the
restrictions on that trade were removed, throwing it also open to the
participation of all nations.
Meanwhile the British ocean-mail subsidy system for steamship service,
instituted with the satisfactory application of steam to ocean navigation,
in the late eighteen-thirties, had become established: the first contract
for open ocean service, made in 1837, being for the carriage of the
Peninsular mails to Spain and Portugal. Although successful ventures
in transatlantic steam navigation had begun nearly a score of years
earlier, the practicability of the employment of steam in this service
was not fully tested to the satisfaction of the British Admiralty till
1838.
In this, as in so many other innovations, Americans led the way. The
first steamer to cross the Atlantic was an American-built and
American-manned craft. This pioneer was the Savannah, built in New
York and bought for service between Savannah and Liverpool. She was
a full-rigged sailing-vessel, of 300 tons, with auxiliary steam power
furnished by an engine built in New Jersey. Her paddles were
removable, so fashioned that they could be folded fan-like when the
ship