New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-01-17
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ConmEAcK AND MITIGATION.

u
The tables Of Commerce and Navigation jusa
published display at q glance the great collapse
that has come over our shipping interest. In the
year ending July, 1859, the total smoantof tun-
mage built in the country was $4,000 tuns--tas
smallest quantity in any year since ls45. For tss
ten years ending with July, 1853, the amount Of
shipping built averaged no less than $4,000 tuns
snDualIy. These ten years show, however, an ~
ordinate Dcrease Of tunnage over any preceding
decade in our history. From 1916 to 1925, tho an
nuaI iDcrt ase Was about So 900 tuns; from 1926 70
1895, 10a, 600 tuns, and from 1885 10 l545 10000
tuns These figures exhibit the great and unhealthy
expansion which took place in the ten years endins
in July, 1853 Within these ten years, greater
lumber Of stimulating causes operated upon oar
shipping interest than ever before within an equal
length of time, or are ever likely to operate again
We had fret the Irish famine, which, BY making
fortunes in single voyage for ship owners, gave
wonderful impulse TO our navigation interest; see
on6ly, the discovery Of the California gold Mines
carrying of Thousands Of ships round Cape Horn,
many Of which never Ietarned thirdly, the develop
ment of the Australian gold mines with similar re-
,ults both upon our own and BEitsh bottoms; and
fourthly the Crime an war; which heightened expee-
tstiop, without fulfllment Of its promise to our
sapQuine maritime interests.
These four inspiring causes, operating one after
the other, and at just the right intervals 10 give
them full play gave an impetus to the business Of
sh pbuding in this country, which has resulted in
the greatest glut Of shipping we have ever
seen, and in the profoundest collapse our navi-
cation interests ever felt. Our entire tunnage, as
well in the coastDg as the foreign trade, s paying
nothing, and has been paying nothing TO the owneu
for several years. We are sure the entire csPitl
invested has not yielded per cent per sunum,
abeye wear and Tear, siDce 1855, and we doubt il
ts net yield has been single dollar. 1t is not ssr-
prisiDg therefore, to find the tunnage built the past
fiscal year ewindled to 1856 900 tuns, from total Of
hsa 0G0 t,lns bulls in 1865, the year in which the
business eliminated.
OF all our domestic interests, no ore stands 60
completely on the basis of freetrsde as the ship
ping interest. Apart from the fact that foreign
vessels are not admitted to American registers,
to the coasting trade, this interest has never
received any special stimulus from legislation.
Its development and expansions have arisen from
general causes connected with trade, or external
exceptional events Ike those to which We have
alluded. 1t has never beeen subject of botbed
culbue--pever been q subject of the forcing pro-
cess. It's growth has been natural, in tue open air.
nourished only by the freest winds Of the CONNER.
cial skies. We sllude 10 the circumstance for the
purpose Of pointing out the fact that it's openair
growth has in no wise shielded it from the bitter
blasts of disappointment and misfortune. We ara
often told that business left TO itself is reer from
vicssitudes less exposed to losses and to reyerses
far more certain to furnish safe and sure returns
than any form Of industry over which Government
extends fostering care. We. point to tbs
existing state OF our navigation interest 10 show
that Free-trade is no such panacea as its adj
vocates declare it to be. If there be any
interest more depressed now in the country
than the shipping interest OF any that has been
longer under cloud, or that has poorer prospects
OF revival, We confess we do not know what in
terest il is. The only hope of Improvement rests
on the fact that il has been dead low water with il
for so long time As it lie with our own, so is il
with British bottoms as well. English steam yes
by subsidies drawn from the ma
tioEal treasury-maintsn themselves at the cost Of
the vitality of the general maritime interest. But,
with this exception, we believe the British shipping
interest is quite much depressed our own. Tho
figures we have given to illustrate the causes of the
glut Of American shipping, can be matched BY SINH
lar statistics Of tie United Kingdom, showing the
depression there to result from the same causes
thai have operated here. There is unquestionably
great excess of tunnage st throughout the world,
the cessation Of shpbuldipg. aud
the large losses that annually occur.