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THE NAVIGATION ACT OF 1651 113 



ended in a radical change in the status of the 

 Dutch fishery. 1 



This policy was embodied in the celebrated 

 Navigation Act of 1651, confirmed nine years 

 later, which gave birth to the British mercan- 

 tile marine and the British Navy, and settled 

 the predominance of British naval power. It 

 would not be going too far to say that this Act 

 was one of the foundation stones upon which 

 the commercial prosperity of modern England 

 is built. It was the abandonment of the 

 policy for which it stood, by the repeal in 1849 

 of our navigation laws, that gave Germany the 

 first weapon with which eventually to embark 

 upon the present war by providmg her with 

 wealth with which to create her mercantile 

 marine and overseas trade and support the 

 navy now conducting the submarine war- 

 fare against this country. The madness which 

 permitted this repeal has quite recently 

 repeated itself when the Government of this 

 country forgot that Britain is an island and 

 endeavoured to fasten upon us the Declaration 

 of London and the policy of a Little Navy ; 

 the valuable part played before the war by 

 Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles, and in a lesser 

 degree by Lord Desborough, and the Council 

 of the Association of Chambers of Commerce 



* The subject is treated in detail by Beaujon in his •* History of 

 the Dutch Sea Fisheries," and briefly explained in a speech, delivered 

 hj the author of this present book before the members of the Insti- 

 tute of Shipbrokers, London, on February 24th, 1916, and afterwards 

 published by the Institute as a pamphlet, under the title of '* Mer- 

 chant Shipping as a Weapon against Germany," by A. M. Samuel. 



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