Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/457

 *tions, or merchandise, of the growth, production, or manufacture of France, or of its colonies or possessions, under penalties similar to those provided under Article 3. Another article stipulated that no vessel should be allowed the privileges of the French flag, unless built in that country, or in the colonies, or other possessions of France, or condemned as a prize, or for any infringement of the laws of the State, and, unless all the officers and three-fourths of the crew were French.

The provisions of this Act were made more complete by those of the decree of the 18th of October of the same year (27 Vindémaire, year II. of the Republic), establishing, among others, various rules concerning the amount of repair to be done to a foreign vessel, sold after wreck in the waters of France, to entitle her to carry the French flag; the amount of repair which a French vessel might undergo in a foreign country without forfeiting its national character; and the conditions under which a French subject, resident abroad, might own a French vessel; together with several enactments for securing the French character of ships, and for the proper measurement of their tonnage. At the same time, there was created by the Act a system of taxes, for the purpose partly of revenue, and partly of protection, intended to supersede the previous system of marine taxation, abolished expressly by Article 29. Of these new taxes, some applied to the vessel and some to the cargo; but the most important of them was a duty, assessed according to tonnage, though in very different proportions, on all vessels, whether French or foreign, entering French ports; excepting