For example, the late M. de Coninck,[231] who was a large shipowner, in his evidence states that he had given up every other branch of business except ship-owning—being at the time, as he remarked, “nothing but a carrier” (charretier). In other respects his evidence was equally frank and straightforward. The cause, he deliberately told the Commissioners, the real cause of the complaints of the Protectionist Shipowners was not loss, properly speaking, but a mere diminution in their profits;[232] this loss, certainly, had, he as frankly admitted, been reduced by competition to an average rate, inferior to that of the palmy days of Protection, during which, he added, the Shipowners obtained unreasonably large profits at the expense of the community. M. de Coninck then gave happy illustrations of the loss so called of which they so loudly complained. “Formerly, and in my time,” he said, “it was considered that a vessel should clear herself in three voyages! That was the golden age of shipowners; but there is no such thing now, and, when we can gain ten per cent. per annum on the cost of our vessel we should be well satisfied.”[233]
M. Bergasse.
In support of the opinions expressed by M. de Coninck we have the indirect testimony of a well-known Protectionist who gave his evidence before the Commission. M. Bergasse, himself a leading Shipowner of Marseilles, was deputed by the Shipowners of that important seaport to appear before the Commission and state the hardships of their case. He was a gentleman of high position and considerable experience and knowledge of the world. After attempting to show the advantages which the Shipowners of other nations had over those of France, he came to the old story which had been told a thousand times in England about the Shipowners and seamen of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, “accustomed,” said he, “to live poorly, they equip their vessels in an entirely economical manner, and do not seek to make Shipowners fortunes,[234] but only to gain their livelihood.”
M. Siegfried.
M. Siegfried, a retired merchant, who followed, gave much valuable evidence, showing the fallacy of the system of protection as insisted on, in this instance, by its partizans. He contended that France, so gifted by nature, only required outlets for her oversea commerce, a better commercial training, and a more hardy and enterprising spirit in trade. In the course of this portion of his evidence he stated, as characteristic of the business deficiencies of French shipmasters, that French export houses frequently chartered English vessels in preference to those of their own country, because the English masters were more easy to deal with, and more accommodating in their way of doing business. Nor were they subject to the extreme anxieties about their responsibility which distinguished the French shipmasters. For instance, he said, the latter will constantly insist upon somebody coming to take note “that bale number so and so had been wetted in the corner,” and, by calling attention to reserves and protests on the bills of lading were, constantly, wearying exporters by their troublesome and minute precautions against responsibility.[235] With regard to the demands of the Protectionists, he strongly adjured the Commissioners on no account to be induced to advise the resumption of the differential duties, as any such protection to the commercial marine of France could have no other effect, in the end, but to increase the prosperity of the railways and to give a fresh impetus to the maritime prosperity of the Italian ports, on the one hand, and of Antwerp and other ports in the northern vicinity of France, on the other.
But this most excellent advice was given in vain; and, though the Commissioners do not appear to have made any regular report on the evidence, the evidence itself was so full of Protectionist views that it taught abundant Protectionist lessons to the legislators who had to draw conclusions from it. Many of these gentlemen are, indeed, imbued with strong Conservative principles, and are, naturally, prone to seize on any statement in favour of their own views without inquiring very minutely into its soundness.
M Thiers and Protection carry the day,
Although an impression prevails that the spirit of Protection took deeper root, than it had previously done in the French Legislative Assembly, after the terrible disasters of the war with Germany, the truth is that it only manifested itself owing to the pressure exerted by M. Thiers when he came into power on that memorable occasion. The spirit of the Assembly was still as much in favour of freedom of commerce as it had been in 1860, when it passed its famous commercial treaty with England. But the enormous drain on the resources of France, together with other causes, and the then all-powerful influence of M. Thiers, who, throughout his long life, has been an honest Protectionist in its most original form, inspired the Assembly with a financial policy intended to husband those resources and to make the most of them, but, being timorous and narrow-minded in its conception, it was by no means calculated to attain the object in view. That such was the case we see most clearly in the system adopted by the New Assembly with respect to foreign commerce, and even more especially, in its relations with the mercantile marine of other countries. That Assembly, in its wisdom, decided that the commercial treaties between England, on the one hand, and Belgium, on the other, should be revised from a Protectionist point of view, so as to return to the old system. Happily, however, a proviso was introduced into the new law which was only in conformity with the spirit of the Treaties of 1860, whereby it was decreed that timely notice should be given to England and to Belgium of any intention on the part of France to put an end to the Treaties of 1860.
and reversed, in 1872, much of the law of 1866.
But the Assembly had its own way with regard to foreign shipping, and, by the laws of the 30th January and 3rd February, 1872, it was enacted, almost entirely through the overwhelming influence of M. Thiers: That all goods imported in foreign ships, except from the French colonies, were to be charged with a surtaxe de pavillon per 100 kilogrammes, according to the following scale of rates: from the countries of Europe and the basin of the Mediterranean, 75 centimes; from countries out of Europe, on this side the Capes of Horn and Good Hope, 1 franc 50 centimes; and, from all countries beyond these Capes, 2 francs. Guano was, however, excepted from these duties because a French mercantile house had entered into a contract to purchase a large quantity of it from the Peruvian Government.