which have derived little or no advantage from the opening of British trade.
There is one other case noticed in the Board of Trade Report to which it is desirable again to advert, in considering the question of reciprocity, as this case has been made the subject of frequent complaint, viz., the exclusion of British ships from the trade between the Atlantic and Pacific ports of the United States of America.
The Government of that country has reserved, as we have seen, this trade to the national flag. In this report it is stated that they have done so, on the ground of its being a Coasting trade; and that they are supported, by analogy, in several other countries under similar geographical conditions: for example, the trade between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coasts of France and Spain.[1] And, further, that, with reference to the technical difficulty, it would not be competent for the Queen, under the retaliatory clauses alluded to, to exclude United States ships from any branch of British trade, except the coasting trade of the United Kingdom; and it had been shown that the share of this trade enjoyed by the United States was so small, that such a measure could neither injure the United States nor benefit British shipping.
It was thought, moreover, that the value of this
- ↑ I have great doubt whether the Board of Trade was justified in making this statement. The Royal Decree of 10th December, 1852, refers to a Law 9th July, 1841, which I have before me; but, when the differential tonnage duty was abolished, the Gibraltar merchants presented addresses thanking the authorities for the restoration of the flag. The ports between the Garonne and the Bidassoa are, surely, not under similar geographical conditions as either the ports or voyage between the Hudson and the Columbia.
