The annual postal subsidies voted by France in 1901 amounted to nearly 27,000,000 francs ($5,211,000). In addition to this the Govern ment paid 5,850,000 francs ($1,129.050) in bounties for construction and 12,300,000 francs ($2,373.900) in navigation bounties, making a grand total of 45,150,000 francs ($8,713,950). Furthermore, a bounty of 15 francs ($2.89) per 100 kilos (220 pounds) is given for machinery and boilers built or repaired. There is no pre tense that any of these subsidies are given for services rendered. It is the avowed purpo,e of all this bounty legislation to build up the French merchant marine, but there is no evidence that French trade has benefited by this policy.
In 1901 Austria paid in subsidies $1,5p0.000, and Hungary $403.000. Russia pays consider able subsidies, but they are mostly for internal commerce and for transport of troops, etc., by the volunteer fleet. Italy began a policy of bounties on construction and navigation in 1885. The Government, in 1897 paid out 2,044,339 lire ($394,557) in navigation bountiei and 124.973 lire ($20,260) in construction bounties. In 1897 Japan adopted the subsidy policy. In addition to heavy bounties on construction and naviga tion. the Government of Japan has since 1900 paid special subsidies of $1.331,600 to the Nippon Yusen Kaisha for its European service, and $325,707 for its Seattle line, and $504,912 for the Toyo Risen Kaisha's line to San Francisco. Hol land, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway pay mail subsidies which are no more than fair compensa tion for services. Norway pays in addition $S4. 92S for facilitating steamer communications, and it is claimed that this enables Norwegian steam ers to drive British vessels out of the trade be tween Norway and England.
Except for the bounties granted in 1792 to certain fishing vessels, the history of Government encouragement to shipping in the United States begins with the act of March 3. 1845, which pro vided for the transmission of the mails in Ameri can ships. An act of March 3, 1847, authorized the Secretary of the Navy to accept the offers made by E. K. Collins & Company to carry the mails from New York to Liverpool and by Mr. Sloo for a mail service between New York and Chagres. In 1848 two lines were started under subsidies— one from New York to Bremen, the other from New York to Havre. The most important sub sidized line was the Collins Line, which began operations June 1, 1850. The original subsidy
was $385,000 per annum for 20 voyages, or at the rate of $19,250 per voyage. At this time the Cunard Line was receiving about $30,000 per voyage. In 1S52 the subsidy to the Collins Line was increased to $33,000 per voyage for 26 trips, or $858,000 per annum. The competition be tween the Collins Line and the Cunard Line was severe from the first. Previous to 1850 the Cunard had a virtual monopoly of the fast freight. business. In a few months after the Col lins Line started freights fell from £7 10s. a ton to £4 a ton. For a time the Collins Line had the advantage in the fight. But the loss of the Arctic in 1854 and the Pacific a little more than a year later seriously crippled the Collins Line. The Pacific was succeeded by the Adriatic, the finest and fastest steamship of that day, but it was impossible to retrieve such disastrous losses. In 1856 Congress reduced the subsidy to $385,000 per annum for 20 trips. Two years later all contracts for carrying the mails were abrogated and the Collins Line failed. The cost of this experiment was about $4,500,000. From 1848 to 1858 the United States Government expended a total of about $15,000,000 in subsidies without any manifest benefit to the American merchant marine. The United States Government gave no further mail subsidies until 1866, when a line from New Yo•k to Rio de Janeiro was subsidized to the amount of $250,000 per annum. One year later the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was granted a subsidy of $500.000 a year for a month ly service to Japan and China via Hawaii. In 1872 the company offered to double the service for an additional $500,000 a year. With some difficulty a bill authorizing such a contract was passed by Congress in 1873. It was after wards discovered that the company had spent more than a million dollars to influence Con gressmen to vote the subsidy. As a result of this disclosure and of the subsequent failure of the company to comply with the conditions imposed. a new contract was abrogated by the Government. The Pacific Mail Company, during its ten years of contract service, received $4,583,000 in subsidies. In that period there was no increase in the trade of the United States with the Orient that cold not be traced to other causes than subsidized mail service, and the gen eral merchant marine declined steadily.