BRITISH AND Fonsieti SHIPPING.-The accounts lately published of the amount
of shipping employed in the foreign trade of the United King- dom, distinguishing British and foreign tonnage, would in former years have furnished the shipowners with the most plausible data in support of their ;complaint that our foreign trade is gradually passing into the hands of other nations. From a return of the tonnage which entered inwards and cleared outwards, excluding vessels in ballast, in each year from 1827 to 1862,, they would find that thd proportionate increase of foreign ton- nage employed in our trade during the last twenty years has been much greater than that of British tonnage. TONNAGE INWARDS. TONNAGE OUTWARDS.
British. Foreign. nriti.h. Foreign. '1833 1 999,937 547,159 1,641,280 522,159
1852 ....4,267,815 2,462,354 .... 4,459,321 2,413,260
rincrease 2,267,878 1,913,163 2,818,041 1,891,101 Tho actual increase in British is considerably greater than in foreign tonnage ; but the proportionate increase, it will at once be seen, has been mush greater in foreign shipping. As regards the latter, the proportion- ate increase has been 350 per cent on the tonnage entered inwards, and about -360 per cent on the tonnage cleared outwards. In British ship- pint, the increase has been, not quite 114 per cent on the tonnage entered outwards, and about 170 per cent on the tonnage cleared outwards. Sup- posing the same rates of increase to go on for the next twelve years, the proportien of foreign to British shipping in our foreign trade would then be about equal; for every thousand tons of British there would he a thonoand tons of foreign shipping employed. This, however, would be nothing new. Towards the close of last war the proportion of foreign to British shippingwhieh entered our ports was much greater than 50 per cent of the whole. In 1810, the respective amounts were, for every thousand tons of British shipping 1310 tons of foreign. Yet, if we mis- take not, , our shipowners made very large profits at that time. Perhaps they Will be able to live even if half our carrying-trade should be per- formed by foreigners.
Previous page
