Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/170

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foreign trade were thrown open without restriction, no one would think of building British ships; the result being, that a great number of persons dependent on shipping—shipwrights and others—must be thrown out of employment, with great general distress ensuing. The difficulty of manning the Royal Navy, under such untoward circumstances (a standard argument), was, of course, dwelt on with great force as an unmitigated national evil. It was further urged, that the relaxation of the laws, so far as to allow Asiatic and African produce to be admitted to Great Britain for home consumption from ports in Europe, in all bottoms, must deprive the British shipowner of his most valuable privilege, and destroy the very essence of the ancient law.

The argument, that these laws ought to be abrogated in the interests of the consumer was met by the counter-assertion, that any difference of freight, if such indeed existed, would make no appreciable difference in the price of consumable articles. Even the excessively high freight of 8s. per barrel from the United States, which had been paid on an emergency, would, they held, amount to only one halfpenny per pound on the flour, so that when freight was reduced to its usual rate, a very slight increase of value was the consequence. The witnesses

long boat; one cutter; one gig with oars, &c., complete, copper fastened to the wales; ship rigged; cordage standing and running rigging complete; two hawsers; two suits of sails complete; the ship to be fastened with iron hanging-knees from the upper deck, and with diagonal iron knees from lower-deck beams to the bilge; patent pumps on deck, and also bilge pumps; all the timber, cordage, sail-cloth, and ironwork, to be of the best materials.]
 * [Footnote: and spare spars complete; patent fids and tressels; roller blocks; one