Fortified by these quotations from his opponent’s evidence, Mr. Ricardo boldly came to the point by asserting it must be clear that, by every ton of shipping driven from the ports of England, there was lost the benefit of the sale of an equivalent amount of our merchandise, and that, thereby, our workmen were deprived of their wages, our manufacturers of their profit, and our Government of revenue. If the Spaniards wanted earthenware, the French sugar, and we wine, “why on earth,” he exclaimed, “should we forbid the natural course of the transaction!” He pointed out the roundabout and expensive way whereby such exchanges of produce must be carried,[41] instancing a case where American hides brought from Marseilles to Rotterdam, not finding a market there, were taken back to Marseilles; and when sent thence to Liverpool, were seized as imported in a French bottom, and released only on the condition that they should be sent back to New York! Such interruptions of commerce, Mr. Ricardo rightly contended, were alike inconvenient and wasteful. He next pointed out discrepancies in the working of the Act, with the various Orders in Council made under it, asserting, at the same time, that freights were artificially enhanced by protection. He espoused, too, the cause of the colonists, who now demanded as a matter of justice, that trade should be as free in shipping as it was in sugar. Could, Mr. Ricardo demanded, any ground of political expediency or any national advantage be shown to justify the retention of these laws? He admitted that the authority of Adam Smith would be adduced against him,[44] but denied that Adam Smith had brought forward evidence to support his argument. He allowed that a defensive navy was of the first importance for the welfare of the country, and that the commercial marine was the nucleus and nursery of that branch of the public service; but he emphatically contended that the way to encourage the commercial navy was to free the commerce of the country from all restrictions, impediments, and obstructions. He held that England could compete successfully with the United States and all the world in building ships, and he produced a variety of statistical statements showing the difference between protected and unprotected tonnage, one of which is especially worthy of notice.[45] “These facts,” added Mr. Ricardo, “speak for themselves, showing the unprotected tonnage has just doubled the increase of the protected tonnage.” He concluded by remarking that commerce was the parent of the merchant marine, and that if the parent were nourished the child would flourish.
Reply of Mr. Liddell.
Mr. Ricardo’s motion carried.
Mr. Thomas Milner Gibson, then Vice-President of the Board of Trade, with whose concurrence the motion had been made, gave the Government’s sanction to the motion, and recommended on their part that the Committee should be appointed. His proposal, however, was strongly opposed by the Hon. H. T. Liddell (now Earl Ravensworth), who asked what could be gained by a Committee, as the Navigation Laws were already suspended until the 1st of September next. He quoted the opinion of Mr. Huskisson,[46] who, in making certain recommendations with relation to the reciprocity treaties, had said: “The object of the Navigation Laws was twofold: first, to create and maintain the great commercial marine of this country for the purposes of national defence; and secondly, an object not less important in the eyes of statesmen, to prevent any one other nation from engrossing too large a portion of the navigation of the world.” Mr. Huskisson, he stated, held that, in those two branches of our maritime system, the fisheries and the coasting trade, there appeared no motive for alteration, and that the laws referring to them must remain unchanged, so long as we were desirous of upholding our great commercial marine. With reference to the European trade, he also declared that the altered state of the world compelled England to enter into some new treaties; that, in so far as exclusion was within their reach, they were bound to grant and enforce a monopoly in favour of the British shipowner—not, indeed, for his especial advantage, but because the commercial marine was the foundation of our naval power, and the maintenance of that power the paramount duty of all governments. It was Mr. Liddell’s opinion, however, that the reciprocity treaties had ever been distasteful to British shipowners, and, that they had suffered in their carrying trade from unequal competition with other countries; but that it was now too late to think of giving them up or of altering a policy to which the country had pledged itself. With regard to the comparative expenses of British and foreign ships, it suited, he said, the case of the Repealers to make this comparison of expenses with the ships of the United States alone; but why not look to the Baltic States, with the trade of which the whole of the eastern parts of this island were directly connected? It was proved, he urged, before a Committee of the House, that the relative cost of a British and Russian ship, both as regards construction and current expenses, was much in favour of the latter, and he called, therefore, on the House not to fritter away the great interests committed to its charge. He, in a long and closely-reasoned speech, strenuously opposed the appointment of the Committee. The motion was supported by Mr. Hume, Mr. Bright, Mr. Labouchere, Lord Sandon, and Mr. Mitchell, and opposed by Lord G. Bentinck, Alderman Thompson, Captain Harris, Mr. Hudson, and Mr. Disraeli; but, Sir Robert Peel having given a very decided opinion in favour of inquiry, and Lord John Russell having supported the proposal on the part of the Government, Mr. Ricardo’s motion was carried by 155 to 61.
Committee appointed, February 1847.
Meeting of Shipowners’ Society, August 12, 1847.
This was the first blow aimed with serious effect against the existence of the Navigation Laws; and, though the Free-trade party affected slightly to disguise their intentions by only asking for inquiry, their zealous partisans out of doors made no scruple in avowing that the total abolition of the Navigation Laws was the real object of their agitation. Circumstances connected with this inquiry led the General Body of Shipowners to hold a special meeting on the 12th August, 1847, but, curiously enough, they did not advance a single remark on the increasing activity of their own business, brought about as this had been in a great measure by the legislation to which I have referred. It cannot be questioned that, if British shipowners had suffered severely in previous years, the reductions in the tariff since 1842, together with the demand for shipping to bring supplies of food for the starving populace of Ireland, had greatly increased their actual business and their future prospects. Nor were other causes wanting to enhance and to ensure this prosperity. A new trade had been developed by the discovery of vast deposits of guano in the islands of the Pacific (of far greater importance than those on the coasts of Africa), and this alone required a large amount of tonnage; while the rapidly increasing consumption of sea-borne coals secured for them another source of remunerative employment. In spite of these obvious advantages, shipowners, however, expressed no feelings of satisfaction, though these new channels of trade afforded them a profitable employment for their vessels: they probably feared that by so doing the Free-traders would at once introduce a measure for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. Nor were their fears groundless. Parliament having thrown out the idea that protection as a principle could not be maintained, the shipowner had to show that his case, as the advocate of maritime commerce generally, was an exception to this rule.
Their arguments.
The Shipowners’ Society of London alleged, with no mean tact and ability, that their members, as a section of the community, advanced no claim to special privileges, and demanded no exemption on abstract grounds, from any burdens to which other interests were subjected. But they argued that, if for objects of supposed national benefit wherein they had no special advantage, the State imposed on them burdens and restrictions, common justice prescribed that they should be protected from the competition of those who were not so tied down, otherwise they would not be able to compete with the shipowners of foreign nations. They further argued, and not without reason, that, by the Registry Laws they were compelled to use the most costly ships in the world; by the Navigation Laws to employ exclusively the highest paid and most expensively fed seamen, those of native birth; and, by a variety of laws, presumed, also, to be of essential importance, they were specially taxed, and, at the same time, were prevented from conducting their pursuits in the way most conducive to their own profit. Clinging, however, tenaciously as they did to the principle of the Navigation Laws, they could hardly expect that their view in favour of protection to their own interest would be entertained; and this, too, at a period when every vessel at their command was fully employed; when they were realizing large profits, and when, indeed, ships could scarcely be found to convey from other countries sufficient food to meet the wants of the people.
The Committee[47] who were appointed on Mr. Ricardo’s motion had examined during the session a great number of witnesses, and in the course of their inquiry made no less than five reports, limiting themselves, however, to the evidence taken, the substance of which I shall hereafter lay before my readers.