Observations on the
Fifth Article of the Treaty of UNION,
humbly offered to the Consideration of the Parliament, relating to
Foreign Ships.
THE Matter of Difficulty upon this Head, I take to be as follows. — By the Article, all Ships, any of whose Owners were Foreigners at the Signing of the Treaty, shall be Deem'd still Foreign Bottoms within the Terms of the Act of Navigation.
The Reason of this is plain, Most of the Shipping employ'd on the South-East of
Scotland,
are Foreign Bottoms, and severals of them own'd by Foreigners, principally
Dutch.
Now, as
England
is very careful to Encourage her own Shipping; and as
Britain
will after the Union still be so the Encrease, Employment and Building of Ships being one of the Principal Foundations of her Wealth. — It would be hard to admit any Ships, which are Foreign built, to be free Ships in
Scotland,
when none that are so in
England
can be admitted.
England
freely admits all Ships built in
Scotland
to be free in all the Ports and Trade of
Britain;
— Nay, to go further,
England
allows by the Union, even
Dutch
Ships, if bought by
Scots
Men, and belonging to
Scots
Owners, to be free, which is more than any
English-man
can be allow'd. — Nay, If a Foreign built Ship lay now at
Leith
Road, and her Owners were all
English-men,
she would not be Deem'd a free Ship by the Union, but the
English
Owners would loose the benefit of employing her; and the Reason of this is, to Encourage our own Shipping, on which so much depends, and this Benefit will be plainly
Scotland's
at last.
But the Objection here, is, We have a great many Ships in our Trade that are Foreign built, and that are chiefly own'd by
Scots-men,
but perhaps may have one or more Owners abroad; and it would be hard that these
Scots-men
should lose the Benefit of their Ships which they employ in the Trade of their Native Country, only because they have some
Dutch-men
concerned with them, — when at the same time 'tis plain, that if these
Dutch-men
were not concerned, the Trade of
Scotland
would with great difficulty be carried on.
The Expedient proposed for this, as I meet with it, is, That a reasonable time should be given for the Subjects of
Scotland
to buy out their
Dutch
Owners or sell their own Interest.
Or that it should have been said, All Ships &c. whose Owners were
Scots-men,
at the End, or Ratification of the Treaty, &c. since till the Treaty is Concluded, every
Scots-man
has a Right to employ any Ship whatever.
To Answer this, I crave leave to say, That this tho plausible in its self, has yet Inconveniencies of a nature Intolerable, because by this, any Man in
England,
as well as in
Scotland,
may in the name of
Scotsmen,
Buy what number of Ships in
Holland
they please, and at the end of the Union, they become free Ships, to the general Ruine of the Shipping in the whole Island.
And this was Remarkably true, to
England
's prodigious Loss, when in the last
Dutch
War, the Ships taken from
Holland
as Prize, were made free, the People bought
Dutch
Ships, caused sham Privateers to take them, and for several years, some hundereds of them were Imployed in their Coal Trade, to the Ruine of the Town of
Ipswick,
where all the large Coal Ships used to be Built, — which Loss that Town never recovered.
To give a time therefore, to have all Ships Own'd by
Scotsmen
come in to be free, is to open a Door to a Mischief, which it cannot be desired,
England
should suffer in Trade; and the value now supposed to be Toucht here, is but very small.
All that I can see in this, is, That a
Medium
be found out, which if it must be, tho I do not grant that necessity neither,
is this,
That
at the time of the Treaty,
the MAJOR PART of such Vessel did belong to the Subjects of
Scotland,
I confess this seems to have some colour of Reason in it, that the Majority should Denominate the whole, and I would hope
England
would not Dispute it, since they do not deny any Foreigners, Holding or Owning any Share of an
English
Vessel, but the Legitimacy of the Vessel consists in her Bottom.
Now if the Majority of Owners as to the Value, I mean, were not
Scots,
no Ship can be accounted Legitimate. If a
Scots
Merchant Owns ⅜ of a Ship, and a
Dutchman
⅝ she cannot be accounted in Reason, any thing but a
Dutch
Ship, especially when her Bottom is
Dutch
too, for the Denomination must go with the Major; and it's not the
Dutch
Merchant is a part Owner of the
Scotsman
's Ship, but the
Scotsman
is a part Owner of the
Dutchman
's Ship.
This small
Medium,
I think, will reduce this Article to a Square, and an Explanatorie Clause to that purpose, will in two Lines determine that Point.
All which is Humbly Remitted to the Consideration of the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament.