ABSTRACT
The great expansion of British shipping during the past forty or fifty years is due not entirely to physical conditions. Our Free Trade policy removed the obstacles to rapid growth, tended to develop efficiency, and has encouraged the most abundant exchange of commodities. Cheap repairing ranks next in importance. Economy of construction and economical management are the deciding factors in the history of shipping of all descriptions, but especially so of tramps. Then the shipowner urges that foreign shipping is not hampered by Board of Trade restrictions, and that it competes against us in our own ports at a great advantage. But whether the injury was large or small, the fact remains that British shipping suffered by these restrictions. Force on or begin retaliation or fiscal war with other States, and shipping will be the first interest to suffer.
