Navigation Laws.

Navigation Laws. The importance of the early maritime codes in developing International Law is indicated in that article. Laws restricting foreign trade and supposed to be in favour of native commerce and shipping are of very ancient date. Thus, in England, by a statute of Richard II., in order to augment the navy of England, it was ordained that none of the lieges should ship any merchandise out of the realm except in native ships, though the statute was soon evaded and seldom followed. At length in 1650 an act was passed with a view to stop the gainful trade of the Dutch. It prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English plantation without a license from the Council of State. In 1651 the prohibition was extended to the mother-country, and no goods were suffered to be imported into England or any of its dependencies in any other than English bottoms, or in the ships of that European nation of which the merchandise was the genuine growth or manufacture. At the Restoration these enactments were repeated and continued by the Navigation Act (12 Char. II. chap. 18), with the further addition that the master and three-fourths of the mariners should also be British subjects. The object of this act was to encourage British shipping, and was long believed to be wise and salutary. Adam Smith, however, perceived that the act was not favourable to foreign commerce or to opulence, and it was only on the ground that defence was more important than opulence that he said it was 'perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England.' In 1826 the statute 4 Geo. IV. chap. 41 repealed the Navigation Act, and established a new system of regulations, which were further varied by subsequent statutes, till, under the influence of the free-trade doctrines, new statutes were passed which reversed the ancient policy. It was not, however, till 1854 that the English coasting trade was thrown open to foreign vessels. In the United States the coasting trade is reserved exclusively to American vessels. As regards those laws of navigation which affect the property and management of ships, a complete code of regulations is contained in the Merchant Shipping Acts (q.v.).—On navigation, see GEOGRAPHY, LATITUDE and LONGITUDE, GREAT CIRCLE SAILING, &c.; and the handbooks by Inman, Norie, Merrifield, Rosser, and Raper.