SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &€. 21 



supply of natives requisite for the navy would far more easily 

 be obtained. The expcnce of sailors' wages too, being in that 

 ca^ as low in Great Britain as in any other country, would 

 not be peculiarly burdensome to our resident ship-owners. 

 That depreciation of freight, which the successful competition 

 of foreign shipping has often occasioned, and which, at times, 

 threatens to oust us of the carrying-trade, would never result 

 from the relative state of wages, and, therefore, less frequently 

 occur. If, in consequence of the alertness of our masters of 

 vessels, and of their economy of time, our sliip-owners can 

 successfully compete with foreigners, who pay lower wages 

 for their crews, how much vaster would be our shipping-in-^ 

 tcrest, but for this restriction of the navigation law ? 



" III. If En^Vish-owner'd ships had no peculiar privileges, al- 

 most all vessels, not employed in the coasting-trade, would 

 "be owned conjointly by Englishmen and foreigners. The ves- 

 sels trading to Hamburgh or the Baltic, would belong in part 

 to the English houses, to whom they would be consigned 

 here ; and belong in part to the Hamburghcrs or Anseatic citi- 

 zens, to whom they would be consigned in the North Seas. 

 The vessel? tradhig to America, would have their proprietors 

 resident there. In those trading to the Mediterranean, mer- 

 chants of Livorno and Smyrna would purchase small shares, 

 in order to secure a preference of consignation. The conse- 

 quence of interesting a consignee in the profits of a ship is. 



