293 



BOTTOMRY. 



BOUNTY. 



291 



are pine-apples, melons, cucumbers, &c., and certain tropical plants 

 qultivated in stoves. 



It is probable that the operation took its rise at a time when it 

 was extremely difficult to procure an equable temperature of the 

 atmosphere by other means ; and when, if the heat of smoke in flues 

 was employed, it had the effect of drying the air in which plants were 

 cultivated till it was unfit for their respiration. Fermenting matter, 

 the temperature of which was prolonged and steady, had in addition 

 the great but hardly appreciated convenience, of keeping the air also 

 gently moistened ; and in this the greatest advantage was found 

 to result. Physiologists tell us that although the principal part 

 of the water of vegetation is derived from the soil, yet plants are 

 exceedingly benefited by the presence of a certain quantity of vapour 

 in the circumambient air, because it not only prevents a too rapid 

 evaporation from the leaves, but is to a considerable extent absorbed 

 by the young epidermis. 



By modern improvements it has been found practicable to maintain 

 the atmosphere of a hothouse in any required state of humidity or 

 temperature ; and when steam or hot water are made use of, this may 

 be carried to a great nicety, and the means of doing this are within 

 the reach of most gardeners. One would therefore have thought that 

 the system of bottom-heat would be abandoned. So far however is 

 this from being the case that it is still much employed, and in com- 

 bination with those additional powers which were originally intended 

 to supersede it. 



It is an axiom in horticulture that the more closely we approach 

 nature in our management of plants the more certain are we to succeeid 

 in our attempts at cultivation. It therefore becomes an important 

 question whether bottom-heat has any existence in nature; some persons 

 imagine that it can only be looked for in equinoctial climates. But 

 the data that we possess upon this subject, although not very precise, 

 are sufficient to enable ua to answer in the affirmative, as has been 

 already stated under the article BARK-BED, to which the reader is 

 referred. Those who hold a different opinion evidently confound 

 cases in which the earth is heated and dried up, with those in which 

 it is merely warmed and maintained in the necessary state of dampness. 



BOTTOMRY, BOTTOMREE, or BUMMAREE, is a term derived 

 into the English maritime law from the Dutch or Low German. In 

 Dutch the term is Bomerie or Bodemery, and in German Bodmerei. 

 It is said to be originally derived from Boden or Bodem, which in Low 

 German and Dutch formerly signified the bottom or keel of a ship ; 

 and according to a common process in language, the part being applied 

 to the whole, also denoted the ship itself. The same word, differently 

 spelt, has been used in a similar manner in the English language ; the 

 expression bottom having been commonly used to signify a ship, pre- 

 viously to the 17th century, and being at the present day well known 

 in that sense as a mercantile phrase. Thus it is a familiar mode of 

 expression among merchants to speak of " shipping goods in foreign 

 bottom." 



The contract of bottomry in maritime law, is a pledge of the ship as 

 a security for the repayment of money advanced to an owner or master, 

 for the purpose of enabling him to carry on the voyage. It is under- 

 stood in this contract, which is usually expressed in the form of a bond, 

 called a Bottomry Bond, that if the ship be lost on the voyage, the 

 lender loses the whole of his money ; but if the ship and tackle reach 

 the destined port, they become immediately liable for the money lent, 

 and also the premium or interest stipulated to be paid upon the loan. 

 No objection could be made, while the usury laws were in force, on 

 the ground of usury, though the stipulated premium exceeded the legal 

 rate of interest, because the lender was liable to the casualties of the 

 voyage, and was not to receive his money again at all events. In 

 France the contract of bottomry is called Contrat a la groae, and in 

 Italy Cambio maritime, and is subject to different regulations by the 

 respective maritime laws of those countries. The German Bodmerei 

 differs in many of its incidents from Bottomry in this country. 



In taking up money upon Bottomry, the loan is made upon the 

 security of the ship alone ; but when the advance is made upon the 

 goods and merchandise or lading, then the borrower only is personally 

 liable for the money, and is said to take up money at rapondentia. 

 In this distinction as to the subject matter of the security, consists the 

 only difference between Bottomry and Respondentia ; the rules of 

 English maritime law being equally applicable to both. 



The practice of lending money on ships was common in Athens, and 

 in othe,r Greek commercial towns. Money thus lent was sometimes 

 called (povruci x/"U MTa ) ship-money. Demosthenes (I. Againtt Apkobut), 

 in making a statement of the property left him by his father, enume- 

 rate^ seventy mime lent on bottomry. If the ship and cargo were lost 

 the lender could not recover his principal or interest ; which stipula- 

 tion was often expressly made in the (avyypfurf) bond. (Demosthenes 

 aijaimt Phormvm, and againtt Dionytodarui, c. 6. 10.) The nature of 

 the bottomry contract is shown in the Oration of Demosthenes against 

 Dionysodorus : 3000 drachma! were lent on a ship, on condition of her 

 sailing to Egypt and returning to Athens ; the money was lent on the 

 double voyage, and the borrower coptracted in writing to return direct 

 to Athens, and not dispute of his cargo of Egyptian grain at any other 

 place. He violated his contract by selling his cargo at Rhodes, having 

 been advised by his partner at Athens that the price of grain had 

 fallen in that city since the departure of the vessel. The plaintiff 



sought to recover principal and interest, of which the borrower 

 attempted to defraud him ; damages also were claimed, conformably 

 to the terms of the bond. As neither principal nor interest could be 

 demanded if the vessel were lost, it was a common plea on the part of 

 the borrower that the ship was wrecked. 



Money was also lent, under the name of pecunia trajecticia, on ships 

 among the Romans, and regulated by various legal provisions. The 

 rate of interest was not limited by law, as in the case of other loans, 

 for the lender ran the risk of losing all if the ship was wrecked ; but 

 this extraordinary rate of interest was only due while the vessel was 

 actually at sea. 



(Dig. 32, tit. 2. De Nautico Feenere; Molloy, t>e Jure Maritime, 

 lib ii. c. 1 1 ; Arnould, On Marine Insurance.) 



BOUNTY. 1. A term used in political economy to signify an 

 advantage, chiefly a pecuniary advantage, or premium, allotted and 

 paid by the state, for the export or import of particular articles, or 

 in respect of the production or manufacture of specified commodities, 

 or to persons who employ ships in certain branches of commerce ; the 

 object being to encourage and foster the export or import trade of 

 the nation, as embracing those particular articles, to attract industry 

 and capital into the specified branches of production or manufacture, 

 or to engage a larger portion of the shipping interest to turn their 

 attention to the particular lines of commerce designated. In this 

 country the idea of encouraging special modes of enterprise is obser- 

 vable very early in our legislature ; but to trace the history of it 

 would, under no circumstances, prove very profitable to the reader, 

 and would be quite impracticable within the limits of this article. 

 Suffice it to say that bounties were held out, by the legislature, in 

 directions so different, and for purposes so various, at different times, 

 that it is most difficult to discover anything in the nature of a 

 governing idea, tending to a defined object, in the vacillating laws that 

 have been passed on this head. Thus in the years 1670 and 1689 

 respectively, there were enacted bounties on the exportation of corn ; in 

 1795 and 1800 respectively, there was a bounty on the importation of it. 

 The fisheries on various parts of our coasts, especially those of Scotland 

 and Ireland, have perhaps been the fields of industry to which bounties 

 have been most largely and persevermgly applied. The bounty, which 

 had been long continued, under different forms, to the whale fishery, 

 ceased in 1824. The general question of bounties and their impolicy 

 is discussed by Adam Smith in his ' Wealth of Nations,' book iv. chap. 

 5 ; and the subject has also been treated in a very complete manner by 

 the late Mr. Ricardo in his ' Principles of Political Economy and 

 Taxation." When Postlethwaite published his 'Dictionary of Com- 

 merce,' in 1774, bounties were " very numerous." After the publica- 

 tion of Adam Smith's work bounties began to be regarded with less 

 favour. They are now no longer relied upon as a means of furthering 

 the true interests of commerce. Adam Smith remarks: " By means 

 of bounties our merchants and manufacturers, it is pretended, will be 

 enabled to sell their goods as cheap or cheaper than their rivals in the 

 foreign markets, . . . We cannot (he adds) force foreigners to buy 

 their goods, as we have done our own countrymen. The next best 

 expedient, it has been thought, therefore, is to pay them for buying." 

 Bounties in truth effect nothing more than this. The propositions 

 maintained by Adam Smith are, that every trade is in a natural state 

 when goods are sold for a price which replaces the whole capital 

 employed in preparing and sending them to the market, with something 

 in addition in the shape of profit. Such a trade needs no bounties. 

 Individual interest is sufficient to prompt men to engage in carrying it 

 on. On the other hand, when goods are sold at a price which does not 

 replace the cost of the raw material, the wages of labour and all the 

 incidental expenses which have been incurred in bringing them into a 

 state fit for the market, together with the manufacturer's profits ; that 

 is, when they are sold at a loss, the manufacturer will cease to produce 

 an unprofitable article, and this particular branch of industry will soon 

 become extinct. It perhaps happens that the general interests of the 

 country are thought to be peculiarly connected with the species of 

 industry in question, and that it therefore behoves government to take 

 means for preventing its falling into decay. At this point commences 

 the operation of bounties, which are devised for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing an equilibrium between the cost of production, the market- 

 price, and a remunerating price, the last of which alone promotes the 

 constant activity of every species of industry. Smith observes, " The 

 bounty is given in order to make up this loss, and to encourage a man 

 to continue or perhaps to begin a trade of which the expense is 

 supposed to be greater than the returns ; of which every operation eats 

 up a part of the capital employed in it ; and which is of such a nature 

 that if all other trades resembled it, there would soon be no capital 

 left in the country." And he adds : " The trades, it is to be observed, 

 which are carried on by means of bounties are the only ones which can 

 be carried on between two nations for any considerable time together, 

 in such a manner as that one of them shall always and regularly lose, 

 or sell its goods for less than they really cost. . . . The effect of 

 bounties, therefore, can only be to force the trade of a country into a 

 channel much less advantageous than that in which it would naturally 

 run of its own accord." One of the most striking instances of the 

 failure of the bounty system occurred about the middle of the last 

 century in connexion with the white herring fishery. Tempted by 

 liberal bounties, persons rashly ventured into the business without a 



