SHIPPING SUBSIDIES, financial aid to shipping by public authority. Great Britain appears to have led the way in this manner of promoting shipping ser vice, Parliament in 1730 providing for a bounty of 20 shillings per ton on ves sels of 20 tons and more employed in the white-herring fisheries. In 1839 the British .Government also granted a sub vention to the Cunard Company as a recompense for the carrying of postal matter, between Canada and Liverpool. The amount, beginning with £60,000, was gradually increased, finally being made to depend on the weight of mail matter carried. By methods such as these the British succeeded in building up their merchant fleet and in driving from the high seas the American clipper lines which previous to these subsidies had won much of the ocean-carrying trade. In ad dition subsidies have also been paid by the British Government for the option of buying or hiring certain speedy Cunard and White Star steamers in time of war. The policy of granting subsidies to ships has been followed by other European countries, though various methods have been employed. Germany paid an annual subsidy for the East Asian service, and other subsidies were paid the North Ger man Lloyd for other services. Indirect subventions were paid also in the form of exemption from import duties. France
also voted mail subsidies which amounted in 1914 to $6,030,000. Italy paid subsi dies in aid of construction and navigation amounting in 1912 to $2,000,000.
The United States has followed no set tled policy in the granting of shipping subsidies, though in 1845 it began to pay for the transportation of mails by ships. The abrogation of contracts for carrying of mails in 1858 by the United States Government brought about the failure of the Collins line which till that time had competed favorably with the Cunard. The abrogation of similar contracts later brought about the failure of the Pacific Mail Company. Under the Act of 1891 the United States instituted a mileage basis of payment for the carrying of mails, and the subsidies have been paid to foreign as well as to American lines. A general subsidy measure was introduced in Congress in 1898, but failed to pass the House. A Senate committee in 1905 recommended a subsidy policy, and its permanent advantages have been grad ually recognized in the plans put forward in 1919 for the resurrection of an Ameri can merchant marine.