By a strange anomaly, Marseilles had been, by the law of the 16th December, 1814, as well as by the ordinance of the 19th September, 1777, put out of the pale of the tonnage duty, and made substantially a free port. This exception, the revival of a still older privilege, had been conceded for the purpose of drawing again to Marseilles, as far as possible, the trade of the Mediterranean, which, during the long period of warfare through which France had passed, had been taken possession of by her rivals in that sea, principally, by the Genoese. The Marseillais considered it as a very great advantage; and Cette, besides other ports of the Mediterranean, solicited a like exemption from a duty they justly regarded much more as an evil than a protection; but in vain, till the time when, as will be explained hereafter, the whole of France was admitted to the freedom which had so long been the exclusive privilege of a single port.
French Colonial system preserved under all its Governments,
The policy of France with regard to her colonies under the first Republic was continued by subsequent Governments, subject, however, to many qualifications and exceptions, by which the system lost much of its uniformity and regularity. But with reference to the treatment of the foreign mercantile marine, the rule excluding alien vessels from the trade between France and the generality of her colonies and possessions was for the most part maintained.
The term Colonie, or Colonie à Culture, is equivalent to the English word Plantation. Possession or établissement applies to such settlements as were made more especially for the purpose of trading, some of the other colonies and settlements being of a mixed character. In the process of time the name of Colonies, in the vocabulary of the Fiscal and Navigation Laws, came to be applied in a stricter sense to the three coffee and sugar islands which had remained to France, La Guadaloupe, la Martinique, and Bourbon (or la Réunion as it is now styled). These three colonies had always been more jealously guarded than the rest from foreign intrusion, and had remained very much under the same system; a series of special regulations common to each of them, placing them, as it were, apart from the rest. The rule as to foreign vessels was still exclusion, and prohibition against approaching the coast (with an exception in favour of the English flag by the second Treaty of Paris in 1763 as already stated) was still, in principle, maintained under the same penalty of confiscation, a penalty, however, not unfrequently disregarded.
but greatly to the injury of her people.
These restrictive laws, as has been the case with all other countries, while most injurious to the mass of the people of France, are really of no benefit to the Shipowners of that country, in whose favour they had been passed and so long adhered to. A few individuals may now and again have been gainers, to the loss of the community at large, but a reference to the customs returns of that country too clearly demonstrates, that its shipping did not keep pace with the other branches of its commerce, and that, ever since the time of Charles IX., when the Navigation Laws were first imposed, France has had to depend, frequently, to its serious loss, on the ships of foreign nations for supplying its population with, not merely the luxuries, but the actual necessaries of life: the restrictive system, therefore, though remaining so long in force and apparent vigour, has ever exhibited a gradual tendency to decline, and, by slow degrees, has been worn away by the current of events flowing towards Free-trade.
English Exhibition of 1851.
It was not, however, until the year 1851 that the eyes of the people of France really began to be opened to the advantages to be derived from a policy of commercial freedom. In that year, the people of Great Britain had reared in one of the beautiful parks, by which their capital is adorned, an elegant structure. The idea, originating with the Society of Arts, was readily adopted by the Prince Consort of our beloved Queen.[222] Perhaps no grander and nobler idea ever emanated from the mind of man. It had for its object peace and good will among nations, and no structure, hitherto erected, ever conveyed a more striking impression of “the abodes of Peace” than did the Crystal Palace of 1851. To it, all nations were invited to send specimens of the natural and cultivated produce of their soil, and the manufactures and arts of their people.
Messrs. Cobden and Chevalier meet first there,
and, ultimately in 1860, carry the Commercial Treaty.