The New Student's Reference Work/Navigation Laws

Navigation Laws, such as interfered with American shipping during the colonial period and such as the United States herself laid down for shipping subsequent to the Declaration of Independence, denote a policy of interference in trade, manufactures etc., which received its first serious challenge from the Wealth of Nations of Adam Smith. As early as 1381 England had begun her policy of insisting that merchandise to and from the kingdom should be carried only in English ships. This prohibition was not effective. The English parliament, however, enacted a similar law in 1645, which under Charles II was replaced by the Act of 1651, legally known as the first navigation act. The second navigation act (1663) had special reference to colonial trade, which was expected to benefit English shipping only. By this act, therefore, all colonial produce for export must be landed in an English port. Yet there were many evasions of the navigation acts, especially by American shipping. The Spanish navigation laws were even more stringent than the British laws; they were summed up in the policy of treating foreign vessels found in Spanish waters as pirates.

The United States constitution in 1789 included a provision that Congress might make such navigation laws as it pleased. Strict acts, favoring American shipping by imposing tonnage on foreign vessels, were passed in 1789 and 1792. A system of mutual concessions, however, began with England after the war of 1812. England repealed her navigation acts in 1824; and America passed more liberal laws in 1884, so that vessels owned only in part in America may now fly the American flag. Tonnage rates were reduced in the United States in 1886. The act of 1884 established a bureau of navigation, subject to the oversight of the treasury department.