This law further provided that all goods produced, originally, by countries out of Europe were liable to a surtaxe d’entrepôt, when imported from the warehouses of Europe, of 3 francs per 100 kilogrammes, unless they were, by the laws then in force, liable to a higher duty, which, in such case, would be charged. But, perhaps, the most suicidal portion of this law, as affecting the French Shipowners, was the re-imposition of from 30 to 50 francs per ton measurement on all foreign vessels, purchased for registration in France, together with a duty on marine engines. Again, a tonnage duty was charged on vessels of every flag coming from any foreign country or from the French colonies, of from 50 centimes to 1 franc per ton measurement; while Articles 1, 3, and 5, of the law of the 19th May, 1866, were repealed.[236]
The object, however, of this new law seems to have been, more especially, directed against the vessels of those countries which were in some respect protected by commercial treaties, and would, otherwise, have been free from it. It was introduced by a report of M. Ancel, of a very discouraging character, who charged the law of 1866, which had abolished the surtaxes de pavillon, with the sufferings and depression of the French maritime interests. Among the injurious effects attributed to that law, M. Ancel’s report alleged the diminution of the imports under the French flag from India and the South Seas. Thus, he stated that, previously to 1860, the foreign flag carried only a small portion of these goods (they never carried any on account of the prohibitory differential duties then in force), whereas, in 1869, three-fourths of them had been imported into France in foreign vessels. Consequently, he demanded, forgetting altogether the interests of the consumer and manufacturer, the re-establishment of the surtaxes de pavillon upon all importations, except those under the flag of such producing countries as were protected against surtaxes by the treaties of navigation with France, at the same time, expressing a hope that these changes would afford to the French Mercantile marine “an encouragement and a strength that its situation imperatively required.”[237]
But it is difficult—indeed it is impossible, to understand how the abolition of the surtaxes de pavillon by the law of 1866 could have caused so much mischief in 1869 and previously, as it was only from the 11th of June of that year that the abolition came into operation; and as to the surtaxes d’entrepôt they had, in fact, never been set aside! It was on such grounds as these, that the chief provisions of the wise and liberal Merchant Shipping Act of Napoleon III. were swept away!
Just views of the Duke Decazes.
Happily, however, there are still many able and shrewd men in the Councils of France—men who were, from the first, well aware of the pernicious effects which this law had produced upon the commerce of their country. “It may be said,” remarks the Duke Decazes with great truth and wisdom, “that it is that law which has jeopardised the great trade in corn of the port of Marseilles, in the same way as it has directed towards Genoa the exports of ore from the island of Elba, so valuable for our foundries ... what has taken place in the south is equally brought under our notice from the north, with respect to the port of Antwerp, which has profited by the new law to the detriment of Havre and Dunkirk. In those seas, it is the German flag which has now obtained the advantage, and enjoys the freight which heretofore pertained to the shipping of France.”
Abolition, for the second time, of the Surtaxes de Pavillon, July 1873.
Unanswerable facts such as these, confirming as they did the lucid and strong opinion expressed by M. Siegfried, showed what a nation may suffer, if it disregard the clear teachings of political economy applicable to all nations, and adopt such ancient and exploded dogmas as those propounded by M. Thiers; hence the Assembly retraced its steps, and by the first article of the law of the 28th and 31st July, 1873, which is still in force, the surtaxes de pavillon were, for the second time, abolished.[238]
It is to be hoped that this practical measure will have more effect than the disregarded admonitions of experience and of knowledge, and that the surtaxes de pavillon will no more find a place in the statute book of France. For the present, vessels of all foreign countries are placed upon the same footing as those of France, except with respect to the Coasting trade between its ports, from which foreign vessels are, as a rule, excluded, except those of Spain. Richer in agricultural products than most other countries, and, with a population very largely engaged in the cultivation of the soil, the French people will, no doubt in time, see the many advantages that they themselves would derive, were this trade, also, thrown open to the competition of the ships of all nations; not, that any nation could manage it so well and profitably as themselves, resident as they are on the spot, but, the fear of competition from others would have a marvellous effect in rousing French Shipowners, as it did those of England, to greater efforts on behalf of their own interests, apart from the interests and well-being of their country.
It may thus be hoped that France will not again be found in the crooked road of retrogression, but that, having under innumerable difficulties and after long years of political discussion, often in the midst of civil wars and great changes in her constitution, achieved victory over the antiquated dogmas of a cumbrous and ruinous system of protection, she will continue in the clear path of progress, which so well becomes a nation endowed by nature with the richest soil and finest climate in Europe. Possessing a population, whose industrious and frugal habits will enable her to maintain for centuries yet to come the relatively high position she has always held among nations, her legislators would do well to teach the people that these great natural advantages, and not her armies, are the true sources of the lasting greatness and happiness of France.