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him,[1] but denied that Adam Smith had brought forward evidence to support his argument. He allowed that a defensive navy was of the first importance for the welfare of the country, and that the commercial marine was the nucleus and nursery of that branch of the public service; but he emphatically contended that the way to encourage the commercial navy was to free the commerce of the country from all restrictions, impediments, and obstructions. He held that England could compete successfully with the United States and all the world in building ships, and he produced a variety of statistical statements showing the difference between protected and unprotected tonnage, one of which is especially worthy of notice.[2]*
- ↑ We give the words of Adam Smith, p. 203 et seq. of his 'Wealth of Nations,' by McCulloch. Ed. 1850. "There seem to be two cases in which it will be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic industry. The first is, when some particular sort of industry is necessary for the defence of the country. The defence of Great Britain, for example, depends very much upon the number of its sailors and shipping. The Act of Navigation, therefore, very properly endeavours to give the sailors and shipping of Great Britain the monopoly of the trade of their own country, in some cases by absolute prohibition, and in others by heavy burdens upon the shipping of foreign countries." Adam Smith, at great length, expounds the principle of the Navigation Laws, admitting at the same time that they are not favourable to the growth of the opulence arising from foreign commerce. "As defence, however," he adds, "is of much more importance than opulence, the Act of Navigation is perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England." In another passage, Adam Smith says: "To expect, indeed, that freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it." P. 207. Same Edition.
- ↑ The first return of vessels engaged in the colonial trade refers to a
year when protection (with the exception of the few Reciprocity
Treaties then in force) was at its height; and the second to a year
when it had been greatly relaxed. It ran thus:—
1826
