The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-05-16


the same footing with the United States, Us an adv'
cate OF free trade Ii shipping And when Englai
shall remove those barriers, which, che has 70 io
maintained, 10 the freedom q. commercial inle
course, and open the ports Of % our ship
coming from all quarters Of the globe, then will q
United States meet her advances, and grant TO he
the privileges she has already in many cases &c
corded TO other countries. In this matter Of com
msrcial reciprocity we shall NOT we feel confident
exhibit the spectacle Of Putting our hand TO tn
plough aud looking back This country win no
shrink from fair competition on the seas with Eng
land. Though we may very properly hesitate a
the adoption Of any patchwork schemes Of the Brit
ish government, in reference 10 The coaetins trade
designed, as Mr.. Lnbonchere admitted In the cours'
Of one OF his speeches, TO, ENSURE to us England
advantages from america irhi our commerce reqifr
sd" The British ships no cheaper carriers thar
those we have been competing with these twenty
years, and with the exception Of the colonial ships
not so cheap. The iron fastened ships OF Dantxig
Stet'in, and Hamburg, cost respectively but f6, 81
and 90 sterling a ton while the wages of Danish
prissian and German senmen range but from five
dollars 10 seven dollars month. Ships cannot be
built OF manned cheaper Than this any where; yei
with these, as with the other Baltic vessels, we have
long been In direct and successful rivalry.
! 1hcpioBresSlNe increase OF our tOnnuEN SHOWS now
little need we have feel apprehension FROM The e
fects Of closer British competition in The carrying
trade. Although England has kept her Fast India
and her other colonial trade herself and also
The Baltic and South American trade, and has been
upon an equality in American ports with onr ship
| ping while American ships have been met with re-
strictons at every point in her vast empire, and
thence excluded from large carrying trade, in which
they have long been ready 10 compete yet, n0twiih-
standing this :bc relative increase of American ship
ping is immensely greater than that Of England. We
have never met with table giving the relative
amounts OF British tonnage engaged in the foreign
and the coasting trade, and therefore have TO con-
rast the total tonnage OF the two countries. II
stands thus:
1880 American tonnage l,l9776- British 2,53isl9
1910 4" g a,ls0,764 q 33ii53s
1877 q. 2,s39,0i6 3,aj252i
From this table we see that the increase of Ameri-
can tonnage, from 1880 to 1917, was 1888 per cent
ofBrish Sc per cent. All this rate of increase, which
Il is fair TO presume will go on under existing
circumstances our tonnage will be great as that
Of the whole British Empire before the year 1860.
But with such radical change as is proposed In
the British navigation laws, we have every reason to
suppose our relative increase will be even more rapid
than 1t has ever been.
Let us look for one moment to the trade in which
will permit our ships to participate, and contrast Il
with the trade shall have TO throw open to British
bottoms, in the event Of reciprocal arrangement
with England, such as the late administration offer
ed, and such ms we have with every country with
which We have reciprocity treaty.
Snch an arrangement will open to us the great In
dia trade with England, which we have already said
employs some seven hundred British ships. II will
give TO us a share in the carriage of the pepper the
spices, The dye stuffs the cotton the rice the WOOL
the sugar, the tea and various other bulky articles
Of commerce. from Hindostan, China, Ceylon, Mai-
rtius, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, &c &c
American ships will flock into the ports Of Calcutta,
Madras, Bombay, and various others In those distant
regions, from whence they are virtually exclud-
ed. Our ships will have access to the great carrying
trade between South America the West Indies, the
British North American Colonies and the United
Kingdom, as well as between the Colonial posses
slons themselves. We shall fall into competitor with
British chips In The trade between England and the
Baltic, and In the trade with other parts of Europe
and Great Britain. When we say that Of the total
commerce Of the United Kingdom, MY per cent. Ia
with the European continent some idea Of lis mag
nltude may be formed.
The following table shows the quantity Of few of
the leading freght-paying articles annually imported
into England, which now carried In British bot
TOMS almost exclusively, from the countreswe have
named, which will give idea of the magnitude Of
the trade that the abolition of the British navigation
laws, If made efectnal, would throw onen TO our
ships. The imports into Great Britain in 1884, were
as follows: