Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/330

 distributed at a great profit over the whole of the continent of Europe. It is unnecessary here to enter into a dissertation as to the general effect of a monopoly produced by war on prices or on the interests of the consumer; nor is it necessary to lay down the principle that, in the long run, a state of peace must, in these days at least, prove far more profitable to the shipowner than a state of war. But during the latter period of the great French war, whatever diminution may have taken place in the building of ships, it is certain that at no period was British shipping more prosperous, or employed at higher freights. Scarcely a ship belonging to any other nation could sail without a licence, which, following the example of France, the British government had rendered imperative. The whole of the exportable produce of the East and West Indies, and a large portion of that from South America, now came to the ports of Great Britain, either for consumption or re-exportation; and any effort of Bonaparte to exclude these necessary articles from the continent proved nearly, if not altogether abortive. England now, to all intents and purposes, obtained a monopoly, costly it is true, but she can never again hope to carry on hostilities with any of the great powers of Europe and bring, as it were, under her dominion at the same time all the material riches of the world. *