With regard to the navigation of East India ships, it is sufficient to notice, that, by the 20th section of 4 Geo. IV., cap. 80 (still in force in 1847), as well as by the 17th section of the Navigation Act (8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88), Lascars and other natives of Asia were not to be deemed British seamen. But by section 21 of the same Act, any number of Lascars might be employed; provided only that there were four British seamen to every hundred tons of the vessel’s burden: by section 23, however, it appears that British seamen need not be employed in certain voyages within the limits of the Charter.
On the subject of privileges granted to vessels of foreign countries in the trade with India, reference must be made to Act 37 Geo. III., cap. 117 (still unrepealed in 1847), which authorised the Directors of the East India Company, subject to the approval of the Board of Control, to make such regulations as they thought fit with respect to the trade to be carried on in ships of countries on friendly terms with England. The case, however, of America was peculiar, in this sense, that her ships were enabled to clear out from English ports to China, while English merchants could not send a British ship to that country! Thus, the Act of 59 Geo. III., cap. 54, sect. 6, allowed United States ships “to clear out from any port of the United Kingdom for the principal settlements of the British dominions in the East Indies,—videlicet, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Prince of Wales Island,—with any articles which could be legally exported from the United Kingdom to the said settlements in British-built ships, subject to the same regulations, &c., as applied to British-built ships.”
even from English ports.
It was under the security of this clause that the traders of the United States sent their vessels to the port of London, to clear out, not for the special ports mentioned in the above Act, but for China, the only exclusive trade at that time retained by the East India Company. Whether the omission of the word China in the Act was an inadvertence, or whether it was, in fact, a violation of the law for United States vessels to go to Canton as well as to the other places within the limits of the Company’s Charter detailed in this Act, the authorities of the Board of Trade did not care to distinguish.[53]
Coasting Trade.
As regards the Coasting Trade, the law—8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88, sect. 8—in force in 1847, declared that no goods nor passengers could be carried coastwise from one part of the United Kingdom to another, or from the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man, and vice versâ, except in British ships, although the original Navigation Act of 1660 did not prevent foreign-built vessels from engaging in the coasting trade. The prohibition in the ancient Act extended only to such as were foreign owned, 12 Car. II., cap. 18, sect. 8. By the Act of 1 James, cap. 18, an extra duty of 5s. per ton for every voyage was laid upon all foreign-built ships engaged in this trade. Subsequently, by 34 Geo. III., cap. 68 (extended to Irish ships by 42 Geo. III., cap. 61), it was enacted, that vessels engaged in the coasting trade should be wholly navigated by British subjects; and this provision was still in force in 1847 by virtue of the definition of a “British ship,” given in the 12th section of the Act of 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 88. The absolute restriction of the coasting trade to British-built ships was not introduced till the consolidation in 1825. The trade of the Isle of Man was put on the footing of a coasting trade in 1844.
Such is an abridged history of the law of Navigation during the intermediate period between 1660 and 1847, comprising the four great divisions of the trade and navigation of the United Kingdom.
No one can rise from a study of these laws without a feeling of amazement at the trouble our ancestors gave themselves “to beggar their neighbours,” under the erroneous impression which too long prevailed, that, by their ruin, our own prosperity could be most effectively achieved. It is, therefore, not surprising that, under such legislative measures, maritime commerce was for centuries slow in growth, and that British merchants and shipowners frequently suffered quite as much through the instrumentality of laws meant for their protection as their foreign competitors, against whom these regulations were levelled.
Summary of the Navigation Laws.
For the convenience of reference it may be useful to give before closing this chapter a condensed recapitulation of the principles of these extraordinary laws, as they stood in 1847, so that my readers may more clearly understand the discussions in the Lords and Commons preceding their repeal:—