of fact, were nullified as regards goods, while the shipowners alone reaped the advantage of this useless and protracted voyage, was surely a climax of absurdity! Nevertheless, it is within my own personal experience that a large amount of business was transacted in this way, all the expenses incurred being, in an economical point of view, a total waste of capital.
and obstructions to trade.
Story of the cochineal.
Again, on the part of the old law, the want of
adaptability to the changing conditions of different
markets was often a serious difficulty. Thus, it often
happened that the state of these markets in different
parts of the world presented favourable mercantile
prospects; but no suitable vessel could be found to
carry the goods to the market where they were required.
For instance, hostilities being about to break
out between France and the United States in 1834,
the price of French brandy rose enormously in America,
while, at the same time, the large quantities of
that article then in England rendered it unsaleable in
the London market. At the time there was not an
American vessel to be chartered in the Thames,
and the American Navigation Laws precluded the
brandy from being carried in a British vessel. On
the other hand, palm-oil, at times, could not be
brought from the United States, there being no British
vessel available for charter on the spot. In such
cases, the merchants complained in their letters in
doleful terms, "I have lost my commission, and some
British vessel the freight." Instances of such occurrences
were multiplied from all parts of the world.
Much was said at the time about the difficulty of bringing
cochineal from the Canary Islands, where the
cactus, on which it feeds, had recently been cultivated
