limited to three hundred thousand gross tons of steamers and one hundred
thousand gross tons of sailing-ships; of which new tonnage freight-built
ships could form two-fifths. The appropriation for the payment of the
bounties was also limited, to guard against a too heavy burden upon the
national treasury. This was fixed at two hundred million francs: one
hundred and fifty million for the shipping and navigation bounties and
fifty million for the construction bounties.[CB]

Unforeseen results of an unsatisfactory nature followed the application
of this law. Professor Viallatés effectively states them in the fewest
words:

"To be sure of profiting by the advantages of the law the
ship-owners hastened to order vessels and to place them on the
stocks. Their haste increased when it was seen that there existed
a considerable discrepancy between the allowed tonnage and the
money appropriated. The appropriation of one hundred and fifty
million francs, opened to assure the payment of the navigation
bounties and the compensation for outfit, was much too little.
The rush was such, as soon as this formidable mistake was
discovered, that, less than nine months after its promulgation,
from December 20, 1902, the useful effect of the law was
completely exhausted."!

Thereupon resort was had to another Extra-Parliamentary commission to
frame another system. The result was a law of 1906 (April), which
separated the shipbuilder from the shipowner. The provisions for the
construction bounty were redrawn with the object, as Professor Viallatés
explains,[CC] "not only to equalize the customs duties affecting the
materials employed, but also to give the builders a compensation