Posted by ACB on November 11, 2002 at 22:35:34 from 195.93.49.13 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Dr (Mr) Ransome & Wm Huskisson posted by Robert Hill on November 08, 2002 at 18:38:30:
The Navigation Acts dated from the 17th Century and restricted trade with Britain (and, significantly, British colonies) to British ships; they were one of the causes of the revolt of the Americans in the 18th Century, in that they also required cargoes moving between, say, Baltimore and Havre to go via, say, Liverpool, thereby greatly increasing the cost of American exports and increasing the profits of British shipowners. Adam Smith argues the case against them in "The Wealth of Nations, and they were high on the Free Traders' list of things to be done away with, along with the Corn Laws.
Their repeal led to a marked increase in trade, with much of this being carried in American bottoms (America Square, in the City of London, hard by the Tower, is so named because the wives of the Masters of American clipper ships in the China tea trade lived there) but the development of the compound expansion steam engine, steel hulls, the undersea telegraph and the impact of the American civil war caused the British mercantile marine to become dominant by the 1880s.
Huskisson was a noted free trader; he had had a falling out with the Iron Duke and had stepped over to the Duke's carriage during a halt to try to make it up.