French flag, shall be abolished;" while Article 6 provided for the ulterior establishment, by imperial decree, of such compensating duties as might be rendered desirable, in consequence of any other nation imposing on the French flag higher duties than were to be levied on its own vessels; thus copying the retaliatory clause of the English Navigation Repeal Act of 1849. By Clause 7 these various articles were made applicable to the islands of Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Réunion (or Bourbon); and by Clause 8, the conditions of Articles 1, 3, and 4 were extended to Algeria; while by Article 9 the trade between France and that colony and its Coasting trade (cabotage) was permitted to be carried on by foreign vessels under the authorisation of its governor.
The 10th, or last Article, of the law of 1866, abolished the differential duties (surtaxes de navigation) which had been imposed on goods imported under a foreign flag, and the lower rate of duty on certain commodities, imported from French warehouses, under the flag of that country.[1]
Repeal Act unsatisfactory to the French Shipowners. But the law of the 19th May, 1866, was very far from giving general satisfaction in France. Many French Shipowners were as loud in their complaints against it as the most noted Protectionist had been in England against the repeal of her Navigation Laws, and with, perhaps, more valid reasons. The new law did not give to them that freedom in the purchase or construction of their ships they had a right to expect. And though the duty of two francs
- ↑ A proposal was made to abolish the Surtaxes d'Entrepôt, or taxes upon goods from the warehouses of Europe, but it was summarily rejected.
