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.