Manual of Ship Subsidies Part 6

[Footnote DW: Meeker.]

[Footnote DX: U.S. Senate Rept., no. 10, 59th Cong., 1st sess.]

[Footnote DY: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]

CHAPTER VIII

SPAIN--PORTUGAL

Spain inst.i.tuted a ship-construction bounty system in 1880, when her merchant marine was languishing, and in 1886 a comprehensive system of mail subventions, contracting for the whole ocean service with a single steamship company, _La Compania Transatlantica Espanola_.

Previous to 1886, for a quarter of a century and more, postal subventions had been given to private commercial houses, or individuals, providing steam communication with the Spanish colonies and foreign ports; but much of the service during that period had been performed by this company through cessions from the holders of the contracts. Before the adoption of the private contract system, the service to the colonies had been performed by the first regular steamship line between the Peninsula and the Antilles (in 1850), established at the State's expense. The ships of this line were all under the command of officers of the navy, and performed various services for the Government besides carrying the mails and despatches.

Under the contract of 1886 (ratified by the Cortes in 1887) the company were to furnish all the mail steam communication between the Peninsula and the colonies and possessions, and foreign ports, for a total maximum subvention of 8,445,222 pesetas ($1,689,044) annually. The subsidy was calculated on the number of nautical miles run. The total sum was distributed among the budgets for the Peninsula and the several colonies.[DZ] In 1909 the subvention was redistributed over the various lines, the total amounting in round numbers to $1,665,600. The contract went as a whole also to the Spanish Transatlantic Company, to run for twenty years. A particular requirement was that the company must favor Spanish trade in every possible way.[EA]

The first construction subsidy law, that of 1880 (June 25), granted a bounty of forty francs ($7.72) per measured ton of 2.83 cubic metres on all ships built in Spain. All tariff duties paid on imported materials for building, careening, or repairing ships or their machinery, were to be refunded by the Government.[EB]

During the decade between 1880 and 1890 the Spanish marine slowly increased. Further to foster it, in 1895 a more general subsidy law was enacted. This act granted a construction subsidy of forty pesetas ($7.72) per gross ton for wooden ships; seventy-five pesetas ($14.48), for iron and steel steamers; and fifty-five pesetas ($10.62), for ships of mixed construction and for sailing-ships of iron and steel.[EC]

The year following the pa.s.sage of this law was marked by rapid expansion in the national marine. Then came a more rapid decline. This was due, it is a.s.sumed, to increased taxes, and business depression occasioned by the colonial wars, involving enlarged Government expenditures and the cutting off of much colonial trade.[EC] During the war with the United States (1898) Spain lost eighteen large steamers of 31,316 tons. After that war, with the development of her national resources, the Spanish marine again began rapidly to grow.[EC]

In 1909 (law of June 14) the system was extended with the addition of general navigation bounties calling for an annual expenditure of 2,750,000 pesetas ($530,750). For ships making monthly sailings to various named points, among them Brazil, Uruguay, and the Argentines, and semi-weekly sailings to Algeria, bounties were provided ranging from seven to seventeen cents per ton gross for every thousand miles run, to continue for a period of ten years. Spanish ships manned by Spanish crews and ranked by maritime agencies as first cla.s.s were made eligible to them. All ships receiving these bounties must admit naval cadets and perform certain services for the Government. To shipbuilders, as off-set to the duties on imported materials which they must pay, bounties for port materials as well as for ships were granted by this law. The construction subsidies were increased to $13.84 per gross ton for wooden ships not possessing their own motor power, and $17.30 self-propelling; $20.76 for iron or steel ships without motor, $27.68 for ships for freight only, $29.41, freight and pa.s.sengers; and $32 pa.s.sengers only.

Ten per cent of the bounties for pa.s.senger ships was to be added for each knot made above fourteen per hour. The sale of a ship to a foreigner within two years after the ship's construction was made invalid unless about a third of the bounty received be repaid. Ships built abroad for Spanish citizens were to be relieved of certain duties "provided it appears that it was absolutely necessary that they be built abroad."[ED]

The total amount paid in mail subventions in 1910 was $1,858,186; in navigation subsidies, $1,291,826. The total Spanish tonnage the same year comprised 579 vessels of 765,460 tons.[EE]

Portugal grants postal subventions of comparatively small amounts to three steamship companies which perform all her mail carrying. A move toward the inst.i.tution of a general subsidy system was made in 1899, when a bill was before the Cortes providing construction and navigation bounties for the encouragement of domestic shipbuilding and ship-using; but this measure was not enacted. In 1911 the republic offered a subsidy of one thousand dollars per voyage in either direction for steamship service between Lisbon and New York, with call at the Azores, the contract to run for three years.[EF] Portugal controls her shipping service with her colonies, the trade with them being restricted to the Portuguese flag.[EG] Her total tonnage is small: in 1910 only 110,183 tons.[EH]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote DZ: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 112, January, 1890, pp. 54-56.]

[Footnote EA: U.S. Vice Con. Gen. William Dawson jr., Con. Repts., no.

349, Oct., 1910.]

[Footnote EB: U.S. Con. Repts., 1890.]

[Footnote EC: Meeker.]

[Footnote ED: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 349, Oct., 1909.]

[Footnote EE: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]

[Footnote EF: Daily Con. Repts., no. 106, May 1, 1911.]

[Footnote EG: Meeker. Also Parliamentary papers.]

[Footnote EH: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]

CHAPTER IX

DENMARK--NORWAY--SWEDEN

Denmark pays postal subventions to two steamship companies for carrying the mails to Sweden and to Iceland, and "trade" subsidies to other companies to encourage particularly the export trade. The latter are payments directly for reductions in freight rates, which are supervised by the Government.[EI] The postal subventions are not large, and they are generally accepted as only fair remuneration for service rendered.[EJ]

Norway and Sweden both give subsidies for mail carriage solely, and grant no direct bounties on shipping. Both, however, undertake the furtherance of commerce and navigation through "State contributions," in the form of loans to shipowners from Government funds.[EK] Such aid has been granted to several steamship lines. In 1910 the Swedish Government granted a loan equivalent to half a million dollars American money toward the capital of a new line between Swedish ports and New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.[EL] Shipping is exempt from taxation in both countries.[EM] The Swedish tonnage in 1910 stood at a total of 1472 vessels of 918,079 tons.[EN]

In Norway the laws put no restriction upon shipowners as to purchase in any market. Most of her steam tonnage is foreign-bought, and largely second-hand. Her merchant fleet, however, consists for the greater part, of wooden sailing-ships, and these are mostly of domestic build.[EM]

Besides the mail subsidies the Government grant "trade" subsidies to some forty Norwegian steamship companies to enable them to maintain routes to various foreign ports. These subsidies amount to about half a million dollars annually.[EO] In 1910 Norway stood in tonnage fourth among European maritime countries: her total tonnage being 2,014,533 tons.[EP] Norway has by far the largest percentage of sea-faring population, and her mariners are found in the crews of all nations in Europe and America.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote EI: Meeker.]

[Footnote EJ: Parl. papers.]

[Footnote EK: Meeker.]

[Footnote EL: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 82, 1910, p. 106.]

[Footnote EM: Meeker.]

[Footnote EN: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]

[Footnote EO: Report of (U.S.) commissioner of navigation for 1909.]

[Footnote EP: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]

CHAPTER X

RUSSIA