FOOTNOTES:

[61] See ‘Report of the London Shipowners’ Society, 1833.’

[62] The chief of these was Mr. G. F. Young, who, it must be admitted, made out a very startling, and, at the time, apparently a very strong case against repeal, or even reciprocity; while Mr. Richmond, Mr. W. Philippe, Mr. W. Imrie of Liverpool, Mr. Duncan Dunbar, Mr. J. Macqueen, and others, brought forward an immense array of facts in support of their allegations.

[63] It was stated that a vessel built in Dantzig, according to the following detailed specification, would cost 10l. 17s. 6d. per ton, and in the United States 12l. per ton; but that a similar vessel could not be produced in any part of Great Britain under 15l. per ton. Say 757 tons, and first class: length on deck, 140 feet; length of keel, 129 feet; breadth of beam, 32 feet; depth of hold, 22 feet; height of ’tween decks laid, 7 feet; the frame to be of oak; bottom planking to the bilge, elm; topsides, wales, &c., pine; ceiling, pine; to have a top-gallant forecastle, fitted for the accommodation of the crew; round house aft, fitted for the accommodation of the captain and officers; the deck otherwise flush; single bulwarks and monkey-rail; patent windlass; caboose fitted with cooking stove; small capstan in the forecastle; a small capstan abaft the mainmast; three anchors; two chain cables of 120 fathoms each; masts, spars, studding-sail booms, and spare spars complete; patent fids and tressels; roller blocks; one long boat; one cutter; one gig with oars, &c., complete, copper fastened to the wales; ship rigged; cordage standing and running rigging complete; two hawsers; two suits of sails complete; the ship to be fastened with iron hanging-knees from the upper deck, and with diagonal iron knees from lower-deck beams to the bilge; patent pumps on deck, and also bilge pumps; all the timber, cordage, sail-cloth, and ironwork, to be of the best materials.

[64] It was contended that as the whole freight of sugar was only 3l. per ton from the West Indies or Cuba, equal to one-third of a penny per lb., while the duty was 14s. per cwt., or 1½d. per lb., any reduction in the freight could not reach the consumer. Such was, also, the case with other articles of large consumption. The average freight of tea was 4l. 15s. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, equal to 1-5/10d. per lb., the duty 2s. 2d. per lb. The average freight on tobacco from New Orleans had been 50s. per hogshead, or equal to 7/15ths of a penny per lb.; from Virginia, 35s. per hogshead, or one-third of a penny per lb.; the duty being 3s. per lb. Taking flour from the United States at 4s. per barrel, freight would be a farthing a lb. The freight upon indigo at 4l. 15s. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, would be equal to 11/16 a lb. The freight on coffee at 4l. per ton is equal to about one-third of a penny per lb., the duty on foreign being 6d., and on coffee from the British possessions 4d. per lb. On cotton the average freight for the previous ten years from Bombay, 3l. 5s. 4d. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, which is equivalent to 7/16ths of a penny per lb.; from the United States it was estimated at 5/8ths of a penny per lb. At these rates, it was urged that it would require a microscopic coinage to secure it to the consumer; it would all be absorbed. Supposing the freight to be reduced one-third, below which no British shipowner could live, leaving a fair freight to pay for the expenses of the ship, and a small profit, and supposing the freight to be so reduced from the foreigner sailing cheaper than we could, it was contended that no benefit could result to the consumer: on the other hand, by its retention, you retain, also, that which it is of the most vital interest for any country to retain, its national defences.

[65] Taking a hypothetical calculation of the result of a voyage of twelve months’ duration of a British ship of 500 tons, and of a ship of equal tonnage of the above-mentioned nations respectively, and taking the items of wages, insurance, interest on capital, calculated at 5 per cent., and depreciation of the property, which experience warrants at 10 per cent. per annum, the total amount of those items, on a ship of 500 tons built in England, and costing 8750l., would be 2623l. 10s. on such a voyage; on a ship of the United States, costing, as estimated, 7250l., it would be 2191l. 10s.; that on a Dutch ship, costing 7000l., it would be 2110l.; that on a Bremen ship, costing 5500l., it would be 1626l.; that on a Swedish ship, costing the same amount, it would be 1550l.; and that on a Prussian ship, costing 4720l., it would be 1329l.; making a difference in favour of an American ship of 432l.; of a Dutch ship of 513l. 10s.; of a Bremen ship of 997l. 10s.; of a Swedish ship of 1073l. 10s.; and of a Prussian ship of 1294l. 10s. These gross disbursements resolved into their elements, as regards wages, stood thus. The wages on a British ship were calculated at 786l.; the wages of an American ship of the same size, viz., 500 tons, 669l.; in a Dutch ship, 640l.; in a Bremen ship, 471l.; in a Swedish ship, 395l.; and in a Prussian ship, 331l. 10s. The items of these wages, as regards British ships, were, an English captain, 10l. a month [that is the amount of wages, but the emoluments of a British captain would be very much more than that]; chief mate, 6l. per month; second mate, 4l. per month; boatswain, 3l. 10s. per month; carpenter, 5l. per month; cook, 2l. 10s.; nine able seamen, at 45s. each, 20l. 5s.; eight ordinary seamen, at 30s. each, 12l.; and three apprentices, at 15s. each, 2l. 5s.; making a monthly amount of 65l. 10s., which multiplied by 12, gives the amount stated, 786l.

[66] Mr. Colquhoun, now Sir Patrick Colquhoun, Q.C., at one time Plenipotentiary of the Hanse Towns at Constantinople, also gave evidence (see 3980, &c.); but, from a point of view entirely different from that of Mr. Richmond. The Hanse Towns, as carriers for the large continent of Germany, were naturally opposed to a system which circumvented their sphere of action, while Holland took the opposite view.

[67] Mr. Richmond was one of my constituents when I represented the Borough of Tynemouth, and, though he strongly opposed my return to Parliament, I have a pleasing recollection of him as a courteous man, and a fine specimen of the old school of Protectionists. In reply to a question of how it was that, in spite of such gloom and ruin, the shipowners of that borough continued to build more vessels, he replied, “Sir, do not you know that Hope is the last thing that forsakes the human breast?”

[68] See ante, [p. 42-8], Reports from their Consuls.

[69] Evidence of Captain Briggs.

[70] Evidence of Captain Briggs.

[71] These tables occupy much space. Vide ‘Report,’ p. 690. House of Commons Inquiry.

[72]

Per Ton.
£s.
A ship 12 years, A 1 Class, 300 tons old measure, built complete, sold for12 12
”10 ” A 1 Class,ditto10 10
” 9 ” A 1 Class,ditto9 0
” 8 ” A 1 Class,ditto8 0
” 7 ” A 1 Class,ditto7 0
” 6 ” A 1 Class,ditto6 0

[73] Vide Evidence of Mr. Braysher, 2297.

[74] It followed from the system, that there was coincidently a protected trade and an unprotected trade. The protected trade included in 1847 the whole coast of Africa and Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and Ascension, Mauritius, British India, the British North American Colonies, the Australian Colonies, the British West Indies, the Fisheries, and the Channel Islands. The unprotected trade included Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Prussia, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Gibraltar and Malta[75], Turkey, the Morea and Egypt, Tripoli, Barbary and Marocco, China, Sumatra and Java, the foreign West Indies, the United States of America, Mexico and the States of South America, the Ionian Islands, the Cape de Verde and the South Sea Islands. In these two categories, protected and unprotected, the whole of the British trade was then comprehended.

[75] Gibraltar and Malta, although colonies of the British Crown, were considered as not in Europe, or foreign countries, with reference to the Navigation Laws, and our Customs Regulations.

[76] On April 3, 1848, Mr. Bright urged on Mr. Labouchere the propriety of importing cotton from Havre, then abundant there; but he replied that the Minister could not abrogate the Navigation Laws; Hansard, vol. xvii. p. 1202.

[77] See Tooke’s ‘History of Prices,’ vol. v. p. 95.

[78] Mr. Tooke says in a note that the highest price in Mark Lane had been reached on the 17th May, when 115s. per quarter was paid for wheat; a very fine parcel was sold in the Uxbridge Market, at 125s.

[79] The total quantity of grain imported of all kinds into this country was 3,790,957 quarters in 1846; but the total imports in 1847 reached 9,436,677 quarters, while the imports of meal and flour in these two years amounted to 3,347,565, and 8,633,991 cwts. respectively. That year my firm alone (W. S. Lindsay and Co.) chartered, in their capacity as shipbrokers, vessels to bring from the Black Sea, Egypt, America, and elsewhere, no less than 1,250,000 quarters of grain of different sorts.