ITALY
Early after its establishment in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy adopted a
subsidy system with the object of reviving and upbuilding the then
languishing Italian merchant marine. This policy was instituted in 1866
with the grant of premiums on the construction of wooden ships. At the
same time materials used in the construction, repair, or enlargement of
ships were made duty-free.[DP]
For a while under these conditions, before iron ships had come much into
use, the merchant marine prospered. Then it again began to languish; and
in 1881 the promulgation of the French general bounty law was made the
special occasion for considering the adoption of a similar measure.[DQ]
The draft of a bill modelled after that law was promptly introduced in
the Chamber of Deputies, in February. But with its consideration such
perplexities arose that at length the whole subject was referred to a
commission of inquiry, to investigate and report a more satisfactory
one. The result of this inquiry was a bill which became law December 6,
1885, to continue in force for ten years.
This law provided for general construction subsidies, on the following
scale: for steamers and sailing-ships built of iron or steel, sixty lire
($11.58) per gross ton; for steam or sailing ships built of wood,
fifteen lire; for _galleggianti_ (floating material: the term signifying
merchant ships navigating the Italian seaboard, rivers, and lakes, but
not provided with certificates of nationality), of iron or steel, thirty
lire; for construction and repairs of marine engines, ten lire per
quintal; for marine boilers, six lire per hundred kilograms of weight.
These bounties were to be increased from 10 to 20 per cent (according to
the degree of speed and other desirable qualities shown) for steamers
built on plans approved by the Government engineers as to be
convertible into cruisers, showing a speed of not less than fourteen
knots an hour, and with sufficient coal-carrying space to steam four
thousand miles at ten knots. The law was applicable to ships bought
abroad as well as those of domestic build. But it forbade the sale or
charter to a foreigner of any steamer upon which the bounty had been
paid, except by Government permission. The laws of 1866 granting
premiums and free entry to shipbuilding materials were suspended during
the ten years' term of this act.[DR]
In 1888, a new tariff of the previous year (July, 1887) having increased
the customs duties on shipbuilding materials, additional bounties on
construction and repair were granted by a royal decree to offset these
disadvantages to the shipbuilders. A provision was added for the payment
of fifty lire per gross ton for construction of war-ships, and eight and
a half-lire per horsepower for engines, nine and a half lire per quintal
for boilers, and eleven lire per quintal for other apparatus, to be used
in war-ships. Navigation bounties were also added to Italian ships as
follows: 0.65 lire per gross ton for every thousand sea miles run beyond
the Suez Canal or the Strait of Gibraltar to or from ports outside of
Europe; the same for ships sailing between one continent with its
adjacent islands and another continent with its adjacent islands,
outside the Mediterranean. Sailing-ships of above fifteen years of age
were ineligible to these bounties; so also were mail-route steamers.[DS]
In 1896, after the expiration of this law, a new law was enacted (July
23) closely modelled upon it. The construction subsidies were the same,
except that war-ships built for foreign countries were debarred from
receiving bounties. The navigation subsidy per gross ton for every
thousand sea miles sailed beyond the Suez Canal and the Strait of
Gibraltar was increased to 0.80 lire, the rate to be diminished by ten
centimes for steamers and fifteen centimes for sailing-ships every three
years. An important addition was the reënactment of the customs rebates
on shipbuilding materials. This law was also to be in force ten
years.[DS]
In 1900 (November 16) a royal decree was issued modifying the law of
1896 in several particulars. No bounty was hereafter to be allowed to
vessels built in Italian yards for foreigners. The customs drawbacks
were abrogated, and in place of them was granted a bounty of five lire
per quintal of metal used in repairs. A bounty of fifty-five lire per
gross ton was offered for iron or steel steamers showing a speed of
above fifteen knots; fifty lire, for steamers speeding twelve to fifteen
knots; forty-five lire, for steamers or sailing-ships with speed below
twelve knots; and thirteen lire per net ton for modern hulls. The
navigation subsidies per gross ton per thousand miles, were thus fixed:
for steamers, forty centimes up to the fifteenth year after
construction; for sailing-ships, twenty centimes up to the twenty-first
year after construction. The yearly distances run for which the bounties
were to be paid were limited to thirty-two thousand miles for a steamer
below twelve knots; forty thousand for one of twelve to fifteen knots;
fifty thousand above fifteen knots, and ten thousand for a sailing-ship.
All Italian ships were eligible to this bounty; foreign ships were
debarred. The maximum expenditure for all the bounties was limited to
ten million lire ($2,000,000) a year.
In 1910 (May) a new subsidy bill was enacted providing for the
continuance of the arrangement under the measure of 1900, with a few
immaterial modifications.[DT] Early in 1911 the Government was reported
to have in readiness ten bills looking to the support of domestic
shipping and shipbuilding. Eight of these had relation to the increase
of subsidy on the Italian mail and cargo service of the Mediterranean.
Other routes subsidized included lines to Central America, Chile,
Canada. Domestic shipbuilding was to be aided to the extent of twelve
hundred and forty thousand dollars.[DU]
Italy's mail subvention system dates from 1877, when the Italian
steamship companies by a convention (July 15) consolidated with the
Government.[DV] All the lines receiving the mail subsidy came to be
owned by a single powerful corporation, the Italian General Navigation
Company. While the rates paid per mile are not so high as those paid by
several other countries, the requirements as to size of vessels, speed,
and amount of service to be rendered, are less exacting. Accordingly
these subventions are in fact, as Professor Meeker recognizes them,
"partly in the nature of concealed bounties." In 1879 the Government
spent in these subventions a total equalling $1,593,214. By 1889 the
total had only slightly increased, the amount that year being
$1,849,392. In 1908 the total was $2,328,917. The mail steamships are
required to carry government civil and military employees at half price.
Previous to 1896 the Italian General Navigation Company owned more than
half of the Italian steam tonnage, and most of the large steamships.[DW]
After 1896 the sail tonnage steadily increased. In 1905 it was recorded
that "the Italian flag now flies over some of the best modern
transatlantic liners in the port of New York; the Mediterranean is full
of Italian ships; and the Lloyd Italiano has five new ten-thousand-ton
steamers nearly ready for service in South America."[DX] Between 1890
and 1910 the Italian gross tonnage increased from 809,598 tons to
1,320,653 tons.[DY]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DP: Meeker.]
[Footnote DQ: Bismarck's Memorial to the German Reichstag, April, 1881.]
[Footnote DR: U.S. Con. Rept., Jan., 1890, no. 112, pp. 61-62. Also
Meeker.]
[Footnote DS: Meeker.]
[Footnote DT: U.S. Consul J. K. Wood, Venice, in Daily Con. Repts., no.
30, Aug 9, 1910.]
[Footnote DU: U.S. Consul T. St. J. Gaffney, Dresden, Germany, in Daily
Con. Repts., no. 83, April 10, 1911.]
[Footnote DV: Meeker.]
[Footnote DW: Meeker.]
[Footnote DX: U.S. Senate Rept., no. 10, 59th Cong., 1st sess.]
[Footnote DY: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]