Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/405

 show the state of the trades before the repeal was completely carried out for British and, partially so, to foreign ships, and that, in order to estimate the full effect of the measure on British shipping, it is necessary, also, to show the number of British ships built and registered during the respective periods.

There are two features in these returns deserving special notice.

1st. According to the opinion of the Board of Trade this account shows a larger relative increase than that of the previous returns relating to the employment of tonnage, while it, at the same time, confirms the hypothesis that many British ships now find an employment in the indirect trade of foreign countries, which, of course, does not appear in the accounts rendered in England. Indeed, during the