In an elaborate memorial (April
6, 1881) he reviewed the general subject of State bounties and subsidies
to shipping in various maritime countries, and closed with this pointed
declaration: "It is deserving of serious consideration whether, under
the circumstances as given, German shipping and German commerce can
hope" for further prosperous developments as against the competition of
other nations aided by public funds and assistance.[CJ]
At this time the German marine was represented by a substantial fleet of
merchant steamships, but all were foreign-built, mostly from British
ship-yards. The Government was paying only a postal subsidy of about
forty-seven thousand dollars--a sum in proportion to the weight of the
parcels forwarded--in the overseas trade to the participating German
steam lines. A first step had been taken indirectly in favor of domestic
shipbuilding six years earlier (1879), when Bismarck, in introducing the
general protective system, exempted this industry, and free entry was
permitted to German ship-yards of materials used in the construction and
equipment of merchant as well as of war-ships, which then were only on
the domestic stocks.[CK] Bismarck's proposal of 1881, to meet French
subsidies with German subsidies, was avowedly with the single object of
promoting with State aid a German mercantile marine.
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