Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/171

 against repeal spoke of various other articles It was contended that as the whole freight of sugar was only 3l. per ton from the West Indies or Cuba, equal to one-third of a penny per lb., while the duty was 14s. per cwt., or 1-1/2d. per lb., any reduction in the freight could not reach the consumer. Such was, also, the case with other articles of large consumption. The average freight of tea was 4l. 15s. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, equal to 1-5/10d. per lb., the duty 2s. 2d. per lb. The average freight on tobacco from New Orleans had been 50s. per hogshead, or equal to 7/15ths of a penny per lb.; from Virginia, 35s. per hogshead, or one-third of a penny per lb.; the duty being 3s. per lb. Taking flour from the United States at 4s. per barrel, freight would be a farthing a lb. The freight upon indigo at 4l. 15s. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, would be equal to 11/16 a lb. The freight on coffee at 4l. per ton is equal to about one-third of a penny per lb., the duty on foreign being 6d., and on coffee from the British possessions 4d. per lb. On cotton the average freight for the previous ten years from Bombay, 3l. 5s. 4d. per ton, of 50 cubic feet, which is equivalent to 7/16ths of a penny per lb.; from the United States it was estimated at 5/8ths of a penny per lb. At these rates, it was urged that it would require a microscopic coinage to secure it to the consumer; it would all be absorbed. Supposing the freight to be reduced one-third, below which no British shipowner could live, leaving a fair freight to pay for the expenses of the ship, and a small profit, and supposing the freight to be so reduced from the foreigner sailing cheaper than we could, it was contended that no benefit could result to the consumer: on the other hand, by its retention, you retain, also, that which it is of the most vital interest for any country to retain, its national defences. in a similar manner, arguing that the reduction would be so small that it could never reach the consumer.

Of all the witnesses examined before the Committee, no one was more opposed to the repeal than Mr. George Frederick Young, a shipbuilder and shipowner in the port of London. He was quite as strong a partisan in favour of leaving things as they were as Mr. Ricardo and Mr. Porter were in favour of Free-trade. He would admit no further innovations of any kind, contending, that, even the reciprocity system had been in the highest degree detrimental to the interests of the British shipowners: indeed, he asserted that if the Navigation Laws were re-*