Chapter XIV Summary
Ship subsidies, open or concealed, are now granted by nearly every maritime nation. Whatever may be the designation of these Government grants,—whether mail subsidies, naval subventions, retaining fees for possible naval service, construction bounties, navigation bounties, trade bounties, Government loans, Government partnerships, tariff advantages, canal refunds,—whatever may be their form, all are distinctly Government aids, direct or indirect, the primary object of which is the development and expansion of the merchant marine of each nation granting them; and generally, if not universally, the upbuilding of this marine for service in time of need as an auxiliary to the national navy.
Summarized, the various grants of the various nations thus appear:
Great Britain grants mail subsidies, and admiralty subventions; her colonies, steamship subsidies.
France: mail subsidies; construction and navigation bounties; fisheries bounties.
Germany: mail subsidies; steamship subsidies; preferential rates on the State railroads for shipbuilding materials.
Belgium: premiums to certain steamship lines; pilotage refunds.
Austria-Hungary: mail subsidies; construction and navigation bounties; Suez Canal refunds. Hungary; bounties to Hungarian ships.
Italy: mail subsidies; construction and navigation bounties.
Spain: mail subsidies; construction and navigation bounties.
Portugal: mail subventions to steamship companies.
Denmark: trade subsidies; exemptions from harbor dues.
Sweden: State contributions—loans to steamship companies.
Norway: State contributions; trade subsidies.
Russia: mail subsidies; mileage subsidies; Government loans; steamship subsidies; Suez Canal refunds.
Japan: State aid to steamship companies; mail subsidies; construction and navigation bounties; fisheries bounties.
China: State aid to steamship companies; subsidies to ship-yards.
South America: Brazil and Argentina, subsidies to foreign steamship companies.
United States: mail subsidies to seven steamship lines.
The United States confines the coastwise trade to American ships, and these are exempted from tonnage dues. It excludes foreign-built ships from American registry, admitting only American ships, or those taken in war as prizes or forfeited for a breach of United States laws, belonging to American citizens.IN Ownership of American ships is restricted to “citizens of the United States, or a corporation organized under the laws of any of the States thereof.”IO The master of an American ship, and all officers in charge of a watch, including the pilots, must be American citizens. Since 1871 foreign materials for ship-building have been admitted free of duty. Since 1909 such materials, and all articles necessary for the outfit and equipment of ships, have been duty-free, with this proviso: that vessels receiving these rebates of duties “shall not be allowed to engage in the coastwise trade of the United States more than six months in any one year,” except upon repayment of the duties remitted; and that vessels built for foreign account and ownership shall not engage in this trade.IP
In 1910 the subsidized American service covered only the one transatlantic line from New York to Southampton, calling at Plymouth and Cherbourg; lines to the north coast of South America—to Venezuela; to Mexico; to Havana; to Jamaica; and on the Pacific, from San Francisco to Tahiti.
The total cost of the service for the year on these seven subsidized routes was $1,114,603.47, a net excess over the amount allowable at present rates to steamers not under contract of $346,677.39, or, deducting the amount would have been paid non-contract steamers for the despatch of the foreign closed mails which these steamers carry without additional cost to the department, a total excess of $293,013.40.IQ “All other mail service between the United States and foreign countries,” the postmaster-general regretfully reported, is “wholly dependent on steamships over whose sailings the department has no control.”IR
The total tonnage of the United States in 1910 as given by Lloyd’s was 5,058,678 tons:
| No. | of | vessels. | Tons. | |
| Sea | 2774 | 2,761,605 | ||
| Northern Lakes | 606 | 2,256,619 | ||
| Philippine Islands | 89 | 40,454 | ||
| Total | 3469 | 5,058,678 |
The number of ships on the lakes as given does not include wooden vessels trading on the Great Lakes. While the ocean tonnage has declined from more than two and a half million tons in 1861 to some eight hundred thousand tons, that engaged in the coastwise and inland trade has steadily increased for many years.IS On the Great Lakes especially is employed a fine and powerful merchant fleet.
The End
Footnotes
IN Registry law of 1792, in Revised Statutes, sec. 4132.
IO Revised Statutes, see. 4131.
IP Tariff act of Aug. 5, 1909, sec. 19.
IQ Postoffice Department report, 1910.
IR Postmaster-general Hitchcock, report, 1910.
IS American Year Book, 1911.