CHAP. VI. Of the Navigation Laws of Great Britain, as they affect the Coasting Trade; the European Trade; the Asiatic, African, and American Trade; the Colonial and Plantation Trade; and British Shipping. HAVING in the preceding chapters considered the right of a state to prohibit or limit her commercial intercourse with other states, it is proposed in the present chapter to compress and illustrate the various provisions of the navigation laws by which the legislature of Great Britain has prohibited, or in a certain degree restricted, the intercourse of foreign vessels with her own ports, or those of her dependent possessions. It appears to have been the favorite and uniform object of British policy, to confine our foreign trade, as far as was consistent with the extent of it, to the shipping and mariners of this country; and in order to accomplish that object, to hold out peculiar privileges and immunities to the mariners and shipping of Great Britain, and to prohibit, under severe penalties, the communication of those immunities to the shipping and mariners of foreign states. It will not be an uninteresting task to point out how gradually the principles of these laws developed and unfolded themselves, before they were digested into one permanent and regular code. The act 5 R. 2. st. 1. c. 3. is generally considered as the first Antient Naviof the British navigation laws (1). This act provided that none gation Laws. of the king's liege people should export or import merchandize except in ships of the king's legiance. But this attempt to encourage English shipping having been made before the actual state of our navigation would warrant it, subsequent statutes of the same reign permitted the employment of foreign vessels, when there was not sufficient British shipping, or when the owners of (1) Com. Dig. Navigation, I. 2. There was a prior act, 42 Edw. 3. ranked amongst the acts of navi- the British shipping demanded unreasonable freight (1). The stat. 1 Hen. 7. c. 8. prohibited the traffic in any wine of Guienne or Gascony, unless brought in English or Irish ships, and by mariners of England, Ireland, Wales, Calais, or the marches of the same; and this act having expired, it was revived by4 Hen.7. c. 10. and its provisions were extended to Thoulouse woad, with the requisition that the master, as well as the majority of the mariners, should be of one of the countries before mentioned, or of Berwick. These acts are remarkable for having brought forward in a specific form two of the leading provisions of the modern navigation code; viz. the requisition as to the British property of the vessels, and the requisition as to the British character of the master and mariners. The third great requisition, the ship should be British-built, was reserved for later times. As to other merchandizes than the wines and woad above mentioned, the same statute 4 Hen. 7. c. 10. permits such general trade to be carried on by merchants strangers in any vessels, but forbids that any other persons inhabiting here shall carry it on in ships belonging to foreigners, except where sufficient British shipping cannot be obtained. But merchandize forced in by stress of weather or enemies was exempted from the provisions of the act. This law was confirmed by statute 32 Hen. 8. c.14. The policy of these provisions received a check by the 5 & 6 Edw. 6. c. 18., which permitted the importation of the beforementioned wines and woad in any vessel, and with any master or mariners; and the acts of 4 Hen. 7. and 5 Rich. 2. were absolutely repealed by the statute of 1 Eliz. c. 13.; but as to vessels, the restrictions were reimposed by the 5 Eliz. c. 5. s. 11.; and several acts about this time, by the imposition of duties upon foreign navigation, enforced the spirit of the British policy: but the only direct provisions were those of the stat. 5 Eliz. c. 5., which forbade the purchase of fish from foreign vessels, in pursuance of the tenor of an act passed in the 33 Hen. 8. c. 2., the earliest of the legislative provisions by which the fisheries are considered as connected with navigation. It was by this statute of Eliz. also, that those parts of our present policy were introduced which relate to the coasting trade. The act provided, that no person should cause to be loaden or carried in any bottom, whereof a stranger born was owner, ship master, or part owner, any kind of fish, victual, wares, or things of what kind or nature (1) 14 R. 2. c. 6. Com. Dig. of Shipping, 11, 12. Navigation, I. 2. Reeves's Law soever, from one port or creek of this realm to another port or creek of the same, on pain of forfeiting the goods so laden or carried. A permission was given to all persons, being subjects, to export wheat, rye, barley, malt, peas or beans, when they did not exceed certain prices, into any parts beyond sea in vessels whereof English subjects should be the only owners. This statute went further than any of those which had preceded it, by forbidding an alien born to become part-owner of the vessels employed in the coasting trade; and it continued in force till the conclusion of the reign of Charles the first. In the meantime, James the first, by some statutes, charters, and proclamations, enforced the exclusive employment of British shipping in the plantation trade; and there were, besides these, various other provisions made in the reign of Elizabeth and James the first, all tending to the encouragement of the fisheries, and the promotion and increase of English shipping and English mariners (1). The republican parliament of England, in A.D. 1646, encouraged British shipping in the plantation trade by exemptions from duties: and introduced another of the leading principles in our navigation code, that of confining to the mother country the trade of its colonies and plantations. In 1650, another restriction was laid upon the plantations in general, which has continued in some degree to the present time. It was in these words: The parliament doth forbid and prohibit all ships of any foreign nation whatsoever to come to or trade in, or traffic with any of the English plantations in America, or any islands, ports, or places thereof, which are planted by and in possession of the people of this commonwealth, without licence first had and obtained from the parliament or council of state. But the most important of all the statutes which passed before the Restoration, was the famous Act of Navigation passed by the parliament on the 9th of October 1651. It directed that no goods or commodities whatsoever, of the growth, production, or manufacture of Asia, Africa, or America, or of any part thereof, or of any islands belonging to them, or any of them, or which are described or laid down in the usual charts or maps of those places, as well of the English plantations as others, should be imported or brought into this commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories (1) Reeves's Law of Shipping, 21-26. 13 Eliz. c. 11. 23 Eliz. 27 Eliz. c. 15. 1 Jac. 1. c. 23. 3 Jac. 1. c. 12. to this commonwealth belonging, or in their possession, in any other ship or vessel whatsoever, but only in such as did truly and without fraud belong only to the people of this commonwealth, or the plantations thereof, as the proprietors or right owners thereof, and whereof the master and mariners are also for the most part of them of the people of this commonwealth. Having thus secured the import trade of Asia, Africa, and America, the act proceeds to direct that no goods, the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, or of any part thereof, shall be imported or brought into this commonwealth of England, or into Ireland, or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories to the commonwealth belonging, or in their possession, in any ship or vessel whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of this commonwealth, as the true owners and proprietors thereof, and in no other; except only such foreign ships and vessels as do truly and properly belong to the people of that country or place of which the said goods are the growth, production, or manufacture, or to such ports where such goods can only be or most usually are first shipped for transportation; and no goods or commodities that are of foreign growth, production, or manufacture, and which are to be brought into this commonwealth in shipping belonging to the people thereof, shall be by them shipped or brought from any other place or country, but only those of their growth, production, or manufacture, or from those ports where the said goods or commodities can only, or are or usually have been first shipped for transportation, and from none other place or country. The fisheries were the next object of this act, which accordingly provided that no sort of cod-fish, ling, herring, pilchard, or any other kind of salted fish usually fished for and caught by the people of this nation, nor any oil made of any kind of fish whatsoever, nor any whale-fins or whale-bones, should be imported into the commonwealth, or into Ireland, or any other lands, islands, plantations, or territories thereto belonging, or in their possession, but only such as should be caught in vessels that truly and properly belonged to the people of this nation as proprietors and right owners. Nor did the act, in its prohibitions upon foreign shipping, confine itself to imports alone; it also ordained that such fish should not be exported from any place belonging to this commonwealth in any other ship or vessel than such as truly and properly appertained to the people of this commonwealth as right owners, and whereof the master and mariners were for the most part of them English. Finally, the act extended its care to the coasting trade, with regard to which it directed that no person whatever should load or carry in any bottom, ship, or vessel, whereof any stranger born (unless such as were denizen or naturalized) were owner, part owner, or master, any fish, victual, wares, or things of what kind or nature soever, from one port or creek of this commonwealth to another. The great purpose of this celebrated act was to cripple the trade of the Dutch, who were in those times the greatest mercantile people of the world; " and although this measure brought upon the country an obstinate and bloody war, and though the authority on which this act was founded was unconstitutional and usurped, yet a plan so wise and solid was strenuously maintained by those who formed it; and it was not suffered to pass away with the transient government from which it derived its origin: the great features of it were adopted by the lawful government at the restoration of Charles II., when a new act of navigation arose out of the ashes of this, and became the basis of all those laws that have since been made for the increase of shipping and navigation.” (1) modern statutes. We now arrive at that grand and still subsisting act of navi- The Navigation gation, the statute 12 Car. 2. c. 18. which has been termed the Act, 12 Car. 2. Charta Maritima of England (2). Those of its provisions which c. 18. and other which may properly be considered within our present object, are threefold: relating, 1st, to the coasting trade of this country; 2dly, to the trade of this country with other independent states; and, 3dly, to the trade which she carries on herself, or permits other states to carry on, with her plantations and foreign posSessions. Though it has been deemed expedient thus to give a short historical sketch of the most material statutes which preceded the Restoration, in order to afford a general view of the antient policy of our ancestors, it will not be necessary to specify in the order of their succession the whole list of important statutes which have been passed since the act of 12 Car. 2.; but on each of the heads proposed to be considered, a single (1) Reeves's Law of Shipping, 1st ed. 53. 2d ed. 40, 1. The origin of this statute has been ascribed by some to the pique of an individual; by others, to the general jealousy entertained by the nation against the Dutch. Lud (2) By Sir Josiah Child, in his Discourse on Trade, Preface. See this statute and other acts in the last volume; and the summary of the provisions in 3 Adolphus, 164-166; and at the end of Reeves's Law of Shipping, 2d edit.. |