Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/794

UNITED STATES.  Until about 1860 there was no other industry more flourishing. Shipbuilding and shipping dates from the very beginning of the colonial period, and together with fishing was the most important industry of the New England colonies. The navigation laws of the mother country tended, on the whole, to foster colonial shipping. The first Congress under the present Constitution, in order to provide for and protect American shipping, placed discriminating duties on goods imported under foreign flags, and tonnage taxes upon the vessels which bore it. The long period of European wars gave American shipping as neutral vessels an advantage in the foreign carrying trade, and the aggregate registered tonnage increased from 123,893 tons, carrying 23.6 per cent. of the American foreign trade, in 1789, to 597,777 tons in 1797, and 981,019 tons in 1810, carrying 91.5 per cent. of the American foreign trade. The tonnage then declined somewhat for a long period, but began to revive about 1840, and in 1847 amounted to 1,047,454 tons, carrying 81.1 per cent. of the American foreign trade, and continuing to increase until 1861, when the tonnage amounted to 2,496,894 tons, carrying 65.2 per cent. of the American foreign trade. A large part of the tonnage, however, was engaged in non-American trade, and it is estimated that the aggregate American tonnage was 50 per cent. greater than that necessary to carry the American trade. If to this tonnage were added that engaged in the coastwise trade in fishing and interior shipping, raising the aggregate to 5,539,813 tons, it is found that it is almost as great as the total tonnage of Great Britain and its dependencies (5,895,369 tons) in the same year. The States had an advantage over Great Britain in that they possessed abundant supplies of timber—the chief material used in ship construction. At the same time they had departed from British models and had developed a type of ship that was safer and speedier than those of their foreign competitors, so that the demand for them was great, and the freight rates were in their favor. Great Britain sought to free itself from this handicap by changing from sail to steam navigation, a policy encouraged by the Government through the granting of subsidies to steamship lines. The United States Government a few years later (1845) began a similar policy by an act intended to give mail contracts to steamships, and, in 1847, by authorizing the construction of seven merchant steamers for mail purposes. The tonnage of steam vessels then increased rapidly from 16,000 tons in 1848 to 62,390 in 1851, which was almost equal to that of the United Kingdom in the same year. The United States reduced its mail subsidies, and after the total steam tonnage had reached the maximum of 115,045 tons in 1855 it decreased until after the Civil War. A more efficient method of the British in removing their handicap was to change from wood to iron, and later to steel, as the principal material used in ship construction. Iron and steel vessels could be built larger and otherwise contribute to making possible cheaper freights. The British had iron in abundance, whereas the United States had not produced it in large quantities, and the tariff prevented its importation. The decline in American shipping had actually begun before the war. During the war period Confederate

warships drove most of the American shipping from the seas, and one-fourth of the total tonnage was sold. The war, on the other hand, gave an impetus to British shipbuilding and shipping. The United States tonnage was reduced to 1,486,749 tons in 1864, carrying 27.5 per cent. of the foreign trade. After standing at about that figure until 1879, it began to decline, until in 1898, when it was only 726,213 tons, carrying 9.3 per cent. of the foreign trade, and in 1902, 873,235 tons, carrying 8.8 per cent, of the foreign trade. The American steam tonnage registered in the foreign trade increased from 224,100 tons in 1894 to 398,000 tons in 1902. The following table shows the share that was carried under the American flag in 1899 of the foreign sea trade of the United States:

The following table shows the number of United States and foreign vessels plying regularly between ports of the United States and ports to the south:

A number of causes are held responsible for the decadence of American shipping since the war. No doubt the fact that the development of the great interior of the country was more attractive to capital had its effect. The American registration laws have since the first Congress prohibited the registration of foreign-built ships, and the tariff against steel, hemp, etc., prevented the American importation of shipbuilding material, both of which provisions have been accused of playing a part in the decadence of our shipping. It is now claimed that the material for construction can be obtained in America cheaper than the British builders can get it, but that there is a greater cost both in the construction of the ships and in the sailing of them, because labor is much more highly paid in the United States than it is abroad. The fact that foreign countries grant heavy subsidies to aid the maintenance of shipping, while the United States has not maintained such a policy, has made the competition an uneven one, and, since the recent development of public interest concerning the serious condition of our foreign shipping, the idea of establishing some form of subsidy by the United States as a solution of the shipping problem has won great popularity. American capital has meanwhile begun to participate largely in the foreign trade, through investments in ships which continue to sail under foreign flags. From 1894 to 1902 there was an increase from 200,000 tons to over 