Advantage naturally taken by foreigners, and especially by the Americans.
Encouraged by this special advantage, the Americans
constructed for the California and China trades,
vessels of still greater dimensions, and of a still finer
description, in which, for a time, they practically
monopolised not merely the trade between New York
and San Francisco, but also that between China and
Great Britain. Attributing the depression from
which they were suffering to the repeal of the Navigation
Laws, as every branch of trade was then
greatly depressed, our Shipowners naturally viewed,
with great alarm, the rapid strides made by American
shipping. Nor were their fears allayed by a
reference to the Board of Trade returns; wherein
it appeared that, while the increase of British
shipping had, in the year previously to the repeal
been 393,955 tons, there had been a decrease in the
year after the repeal of 180,576 tons; while, concurrently
with the falling off of British shipping, it was
also shown that foreign vessels, entering inwards
from foreign ports, had increased from 75,278 tons
to 364,587 tons. Our position appeared, therefore,
critical; and, had it not been for the resources we
held within ourselves, and the indomitable energy of
our people, foreign shipping might then have gained
an ascendency which might not afterwards have been
easily overcome.
American shipping, above that of all other nations, had, hitherto, been moving onward with such rapid strides that though, in 1815, at the close of the war, the tonnage of the United States was not more than one-half that of Great Britain, it had risen by 1850 to 3,535,454 tons (including river and lake steamers), against 4,232,960 tons of British
