and bonded warehouses. maritime nations. The steamship, to which we shall have occasion frequently, and at considerable length, to refer, had its birth, for all practical purposes, in the midst of war; while the dock, bonding, and warehousing systems, without which England never could have become the chief market of the world, were then, for the first time, successfully introduced. The power of steam, it is true, had been known, and the advantages which docks and bonding warehouses were likely to confer had been discussed long before the commencement of the present century, but it was only then that they were brought into useful and remunerative operation.
So early as 1660 the Commercial wet-dock on the Surrey side of the River Thames was opened to shipping, and, in 1662, the magistrates of Glasgow purchased the land on which Port Glasgow is now erected, and constructed there a harbour and a graving dock; but these were the only works of the kind in any way worthy of note until an Act, passed in 1709,[1] authorized the construction of a wet-dock at Liverpool. Close upon another century, however, elapsed ere the Act was passed which led to the construction and opening of the West India Docks of London. Nor had anything been done before that period to carry into effect the recommendations of Sir Robert Walpole, who, so far back as 1733, had strongly urged the desirability of some sort of warehousing system, whereby the duties levied upon imported goods might be collected so as to meet the convenience of their owners or consignees, and to protect the revenue.
- ↑ 8 Anne, chap. xii.
