Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/113

 of the leading opponents of any change in the laws of shipping, who had also advocated a tax on Colonial vessels, stating, in his evidence in 1844-45, that he "considered the whole system of Navigation Laws as relating more to the encouragement of maritime commerce than to any other object, and that, therefore, many sacrifices of pecuniary interests ought to be made for it," adding, "I have no doubt that private interests ought to be sacrificed for the general interests of the country. If the Legislature should decide that it was no longer necessary to keep up the Navigation Laws as a means of national security, no doubt the consumers of foreign articles could purchase at a cheaper rate, since this would be the natural consequence of admitting imports in the ships of foreign nations."

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, instancing a case where American*