It is natural that British ship-owners should have taken the lead in this movement, for, while the percentage of tonnage under the British flag is smaller than before the War, the British merchant navy is still much larger than that of any other nation, and takes a much larger share in the general carrying trade of the world. That position is likely to be retained, for geographical position, an indented coastline, coal and iron in close proximity to the ports, and an accumulated capital larger than can be absorbed in the development of her internal resources, all draw Great Britain to the sea. Shipping, however, is only the handmaid of commerce, and the future prosperity both of British and of the world's shipping depends on the demand for transport created by the peaceful development of the world's resources, and on the ability of the ship-owners to meet that demand by supplying cheap and efficient carrying power. In the past it was the glory of shipping to extend the range of civilization by the discovery and exploration of new countries, and by enabling their empty spaces to be peopled from the surplus population of the old world. The period of discovery is over; the world has been mapped and charted. The tide of emigration has slackened with the growth of the new communities oversea. It remains for shipping to continue its beneficent task of redressing the uneven distribution of the world's natural resources by a system of exchange which renders the products of all climes available in all countries to the benefit of all peoples.
BIBuoGRAPHY.—General: W. S. Lindsay, History of Merchant Ship ping (4 vols., 5874-76) ; R. J. Cornewall-Jones, The British Merchant Service (1898) ; • A. W. Kirkaldy, British Shipping bibl.) ;
Clement Jones, British Merchant Shipping (1922) ; E. Keble Chatter ton, The Mercantile Marine (1923) ; W. L. Marvin, The American Merchant Marine (1902) ; J. R. Spears, The Story of the American Merchant Marine (1915) ; • C. E. Cartwright, The Tale of Our Mer chant Ships (1924) ; R. A. Verneaux, L'industrie des transports mari times an siecle et au commencement du siecle (2 vols., 1903) ; R. G. Plumb, History of the Navigation of the Great Lakes (19n).
Special Periods, etc.: M. P. Charlesworth, Trade Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire (1924, bibl.) ; Cecil Torr, Ancient Ships (1894) M. Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy and of the Merchant Service in relation to the Navy (1896) ; J. A. Williamson, Maritime Enterprise, 1485-1558 T. W. Fulton, The Sovereignty of the Sea (1915) ; A. H. Clark, The Clipper Ship Era (59,0) ; B. Lubbock, The China Clippers (Glasgow, 1919), The Colonial Clippers (Glasgow, 1921) ; Report of the De partmental Committee on Shipping and Shipbuilding after the War, Cd. 9,092 (1918) ; C. E. Fayle, The War and the Shipping Industry (1926) ; Archibald Hurd, The Merchant Navy (1921, etc.) ; annual reports of the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom and the Liverpool Steam Ship Owners' Association ; Brassey's Naval and Mercantile Annual; U. S. Navigation Bureau (Commerce Dept.), Merchant Marine Statistics (1924–date) ; U. S. Shipping Board, Re search Bureau, Report on volume of water-borne foreign Com merce of the United States, 1925/26; and Report of the National Merchant Marine Conference held under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States (1925). (C. E. F.)