NAVIGATION LAWS. The early restric tion placed upon commerce NV S but one phase of the application of the economic Ilnetrines ad vocated prior to the time of Adam Smith. pro hibiting exports. regulating intercourse. and gen erallyobst met ing the operation of economic law.A. The first recorded British navigation law belonm to the reign I if Richard 11. (1381). and required the shipment of merehandise by the "King's liege people" in "ships of the King's liegance." Sub sequently a more liberal policy was pursued. With the discovery of the New World and the eonse quoit growth of colonial dependencies. both the importance of navigation laws as a question of policy and their sphere of influence were greatly extended. England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland by their restrictions prohibited all com mercial intercourse between their colonies and other nations; and Spain even treated the crews of foreign ships wrecked upon her coasts as pirates. In 1645 the English Parliament passed an act prohibiting the importation into England of whale oil and other products of the whale fisheries, in any vessels except such as were owned in England and were manned by English seamen. This act was the first of a long series of acts which are known collectively in history as "The Navigation Acts." The acts of 1651 and 1660— the latter of which is known officially as "The Fikst Navigation Act"—served as the basis of the British legislation in this field for almost two hundred years. In general, the objects of these acts, as of the succeeding ones, were to protect the shipping of England and her colonies, and to exploit the trade of the colonies in the interest of the mother country. The chief feature of the acts of 1651 and 1660 was the prohibition of the importation into England of foreign) products except in English ships or in the ships of the country of production. In 1663, by what is usually known as the 'Second Navi gation Act,' it was ordered that "none of the products of the English plantations or fac tories . . . in Asia, Africa, or America shall be carried anywhere (except to other planta tions) till they be first landed in England, under the forfeiture of ships and cargoes." The Eng lish restrictive measures neither destroyed the Dutch commerce of the seventeenth century nor stamped out American shipping interests of the eighteenth. The Lloyd's register of 1775 re turned for the three years next preceding, 2311 vessels of American build as against 3908 of British construction. The chief features of the
British Navigation Code, which was essentially identical with that of all maritime nations. as it existed down to the time of its repeal in 1849. required: That no foreigner could own, wholly or in part, an English ship; the captain and three fourths of the crew must be British sub jects; foreign products must be imported in British ships or in ships of the country of pro duction; products of Asia, Africa. and America could not be imported into Great Britain from any European port in any ship whatsoever, and such products could be imported from any other place only in British ships or those of the coun try of production. No coastwise trade was per mitted in foreign ships to the United Kingdom or between different British possessions, and trade of any kind was permitted only by special au thorization. The effort to evade these restric tions involved great waste of capital, while the adoption of a more liberal policy has resulted in no diminution of the prosperity of the British Merchant Marine.
The Ameriean navigation policy began with the treaty of commerce entered into with France in 1778, which included a provision to take as the "basis of their agreement the most perfect equal ity and reciprocity." But the liberal tone of this instrument was discontinued when, under the influence of the New England representatives the framers of the Constitution in 1789 gave to Con gress an unrestricted power to enact navigation laws (U. S. Con., Art. I., § viii., clause 31. In 1789-92 the foundation of the American system was laid by the levying of tonnage dues and im port taxes after the English custom so drastic in nature as to give American shipments a practical monopoly of American commerce. This was fol lowed by a registration act (1792) and the clos ing of the coasting trade to foreign shipping in 1793. After the close of the War of 1812 the two countries somewhat modified their attitude to ward each other, and a treaty was entered into placing their ships upon a reciprocal footing in the ports of the United States and Great Britain and suspending somewhat the discriminating duties charged upon the goods carried. This tendency gradually resulted in England in the Reciprocity Acts of 1824 and the final repeal of her navigation laws.