]
[Footnote EP: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]
CHAPTER X
RUSSIA
In Russia steamship lines were early subsidized with mileage bounties,
besides receiving postal subventions; and later the Government adopted
the policy of returning the Suez Canal tolls to the subsidized lines.
The mileage subsidies are direct bounties avowedly for the encouragement
of Russian navigation, and are very large.[EQ]
In 1898 a Government commission, appointed to consider and report upon
the state of the empire's mercantile marine, declared that Russia was
losing a vast sum annually through the lack of a sufficient commercial
fleet of her own, and yet no progress seemed to be making toward
increasing her tonnage. To remedy this unsatisfactory condition the
commission suggested the removal of the duty on ships built abroad for
Russia, and the free admission of all material necessary for ship
construction.[ER]
Favoring laws followed. By a measure of July that year (1898) ships
bought abroad, if destined for the foreign sea-borne trade, were
exempted for a period of ten years from the heavy duties levied on such
vessels.[EQ] The next year (1899) the coasting trade, reserved
exclusively for Russian ships, was extended to include navigation
between any two Russian ports in any seas; and, further to restrict this
trade to subjects of the empire, it was enacted that ships engaged in it
must be manned exclusively by Russian officers and seamen.
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