In 1844 an indirect move against the code was made, with the appointment
of a committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the working of
the reciprocal treaties and the condition of the mercantile marine of
the country.[R]
At this period the competition of the United States in the overseas
carrying trade of the world was hard pressing England. The Americans
were building the best wooden ships, superior in model and
seaworthiness, the fastest sailers. They were leading in shipbuilding.
Much of the British shipping trade was carried on in American-built
vessels. The splendid American clipper ships were almost monopolizing
the carrying trade between Great Britain and the United States. Most of
the shipping of the world was yet in wooden bottoms. Iron ships were in
service, but iron-shipbuilding was in its infancy.
The Parliamentary inquiry of 1844 was followed up in 1847 with a move
openly against the ancient code. Its principles as they then stood,
essentially as in 1660, despite the multitude of regulating statutes,
are thus enumerated:
1. Certain named articles of European produce could only be
imported into the United Kingdom for consumption in British
ships, or in ships of the country of which the goods were the
produce, or of the country from which they were usually imported.
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