The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-15 00:00:00

THE NAVIGATION LAWS.

The Select Committee appointed by the House of Com-
mons to inquire into the operation of the Navigation
Laws met on Thursday in Committee-room No. 2.
There were present Mr. Ricardo, chairman; Sir Robert
Peel, Alderman Thompson, Mr. Lyall, Mr. Hume, Ad-
miral Dundas, Mr. Mitchell, Sir Howard Douglas, Sir
George Clerk, Hon. Mr. Villiers, and Mr. T. Baring.
Mr. Young was recalled, and begged to correct a
statement he had made last day, to the effect that Mr.
M'Gregor was in favour of prohibiting foreigners from
exporting British goods. He had since seen that gentle-
man, who assured him he was in error ; and added
at the same time that he would advise the ship-
owners to be content with continuing the restrictions
on the colonial and coasting trade. He also found that
some members of the Committee had led.him into error
in stating that British ships might import tea from the
United States. He had since looked into the matter,
and he found there was nothing in the navigation-law
itself to prevent that; but it was prohibited by a special
clause in the Regulation Act.
Sir George Clark admitted that the witness was right.
Examination continued by Alderman Thompson—lt
was quite impossible that he could agree with the
evidence formerly given before the Committee by Mr.
Browning, that the combination of shipwrights in the
river Thames had enhanced the price of ships by several
pounds a ton. The total cost of labour did not, under
any circumstances, exceed 41. per ton, and he thought
2/. 10s. per ton was a fair average price ; so that to
talk of the combination as enhancing the price of ships
by several pounds was perfectly absurd. With regard
to another part of Mr. Browning's evidence, in which he
stated that foreign vessels paid no light dues, while
British ships were subject to the tax, it was most
extraordinary to him that any gentleman who knew
anything of the laws of the country could come
to such a conclusion, because it was perfectly well known
that not only were all foreign ships chargeable with light
dues, but that, in accordancs with the old laws, the ships
of many countries were still subject to double dues,
which in some instances were paid out of the Consoli
dated Fund. With regard to the profits of shipowners,
he was satisfied from his own experience that the con-
stant. competition of shipowners had reduced freights
down to the lowest possible rates compatible with a
moderate degree of profit, except at extraordinary times,
when there happened to be a scarcity of ships. He hats
known freights f*a• cotton from Bombay as low as 155.,
while they were at present as high as 41. He felt convinced
that the capital of the shipowners yielded a smaller return
than any equal amount of capital employed in any
other pursuit. The reason for this appeared to be the
facility with which persons could embark in the trade.
and the facility with which they could again disengage
themselves. Every captain looked forward to getting
he whole or part of a shin as the great object of his
life, and he was satisfied that ships were inure exten
sively owned by practical seafaring men than by men of
capital.
Mr. Villiers—How does the facility of leaving the
trade induce people to embark in it ?
Mr. Young - It is the triumph of hope over experience,
as every man who enters it thinks that he will draw the
prize in the lottery.
By Alderman Thompson—The number of ships be-
longing to Great Britain amounted to 32,499, and their
torm.ge was 3,817,112. He thought the average value
of the tonnage of the empire was 10/. per ton, which
would make for the whole 38,171,1201. The capital em
ployed in the trades connected with and dependent on
ships he calculated, on a rough estimate, to amount to
16,083,8071. ; which, if added' to the value of the ton •
nage, would make a capital of 54,254,9274
Mr. Mitchell—But sail cloth, for instance, is exported
abroad, therefore that trade would not be injured even
though the ship-buiding trade was transferred to other
countries.
Mr.Young—The Hon. Member will excuse me. I have
not added sail cloth makers, otherwise the value would
have been greatly increased. The traders which he
had estimated were shipwrights, rope-makers, sail-
makers, mast and block makers, a proportion of coopers,
ship joiners, ship block-smiths, ship sawyers, ship pain-
ters, riggers, ship chandlers, ship coppersmiths, ship
brassfounders, ship plumbers and glaziers. He found
that the number of ships built last year in Great Britain
amounted to 1,525, of 228,764 tonnage. He estimated
the cost of these ships on an average at 131. 10s. a
ton, which was a very low rate; this gave a capital of
3,088,314/., which, taken along with the annual ex•
pense of repairing and outfitting, which he estimated
at 7,634,224/., being an aggregate annual expenditure
under these heads of 10.722,5381. The number of Eng
lish sailors was returned by the last census as 229,276.
He thought the amount of money annually paid in
wages to the officers and seamen of British ships was
3.731,9001, while the expense of victualling he estimated
at 3,680,906/., making in all the sum of 9,218,806/. With
regard to the number of workmen connected with ships,
he had given the matter much consideration, and the
conclusion he had come to was this, that the number of
workmen employed in those trades which were ex
elusively connected with the building and equipment
of ships, and the proportion of those workmen that were
so engaged in trades not exclusively connected with
ship-building, amounted to 79,616, earning wages to the
annual amount of 4,968,104/. The freight annually
earned by the commercial marine of this country he es-
timated at 28,628,290/. Now, it appeared to him that
after adding to the charges he had already enumerated
a reasonable amount for pilotage, lights, port charges,
and other expenses not hitherto enumerated, as well as
for insurancesm andor2 2 901
,2t3h.;,48 depreciation in the value
of ships, he considered the annual expenditure to
be in
th
alle 26,395.8101., while the freights were, as he
had said,
28,628 leaving
, wghie fohr was the
as
profitsnearly
a of
possible seven per cent. on the estimated value of the
ng
capital
capital. Now he had reason to believe that this was
more than the average annual return upon the capital o
the shipowners; and this satisfied him that he had no

wer-estimated the capital engaged in the shipping trade.
rle would only beg further to call the attention of the
Committee to the tact that it appeared from these figures
that the shipping interest was of a magnitude as great
as any other interest in the country, and,consequently, as
important to its true interests, not excepting the cotton
trade, or ally other of the great staples of the country.
Mr. Viliiers—Do you mention the cotton trade in par-
ticular, because it is not protected ?
Mr. Young had no such ()Wet as the one attributed to
him by the Hon. Member ; he had, in fact, no other
object beyond showing that the shipping trade of this
country was a large and important interest, well de-
serving the attention of this country. The examination
of Mr. Young here closed, after an examination con-
tinued for more than four days ; and on leaving Mr.
Mitchell and Alderman Thompson both complimented
him on the value of the information he had given them
The next witness called was Mr. M.Queen, examined
by Alderman Thompson.—He had long been connected
with the West Indies, and was thoroughly acquainted
with the trade of that part of the world. He was well ac-
quainted with the coal depots formed for the Royal
Steam Navigation Company. They were formed in
Granada, St. Thomas, Jamaica, and Havannah. They
were selected solely for the purpose of the working of
the different steamers of the company on the sections to
which they were appointed. The British Navigation
Laws had nothing whatever to do with the selec-
tion of those ports, nor were they selected because
coils could be got cheaper there, where coals
were brought by all ships, than they could
be had in those colonies were coals could only be
brought in British ships. It was himself who selected
those stations : and at all those places the ships bring-
ing coals were exempted from all charges, provided that
they did not take a return cargo. The British Naviga-
th n Laws were never stated to him as a reason why
red4n Powers would not consent to give the privileges
to the Steam Company; on the contrary, he found that
th sa Powers, which in ordinary cases were most rigid
in excluding foreigners, were willing, in this case, to
afford them every facility. The American Government
indeed were at first jealous, and the American people
were iddeed still more jealous than the Government, as
if the Steam Company were about to interfere with their
export trade ; hut when it was found that they contem-
plated no such thing, but simply the conveyance of their
passengers from South America to the different ports,
they were quite satisfied, and the American Government
eave him every facility in their power, telling him
this was the most likely thing that had ever hap-
pened to bind the two nations in peace and amity.
But for the convenience of working the sections, New
Orleans would be a better coal depot than the Ha-
vannah, as the coals were cheap there, the people bring-
ing down great raft loads of thi m from the Mississippi ;
and on their arrival at New Orleans they sold at
once both raft and cargo. All along the eastern sides of
the Allegheny Mountains the coal was very abundant.
He knew that cotton was 'abundantly cultivated some
years ago in the West Indies. There were various