England has never granted general ship-construction or navigation
bounties except in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Under Elizabeth
Parliament offered a bounty of five shillings per ton to every ship
above one hundred tons burden; and under James I that law was revived,
with the bounty applying only to vessels of two hundred tons or over.[A]

A policy of Government favoritism to shipping, however, began far back
in the dim ninth century with Alfred the Great. Under the inspiration of
this Saxon of many virtues, his people increased the number of English
merchant vessels and laid the foundation for the creation and
maintenance of a royal navy.[B] The Saxon Athelstan, Alfred's grandson,
whose attention to commerce was also marked, first made it a way to
honor, one of his laws enacting that a merchant or mariner successfully
accomplishing three voyages on the high seas with a ship and a cargo of
his own should be advanced to the dignity of a thane (baron).[C]

The first navigation law was enacted in the year 1381, fifth of Richard
II. This act, introduced "to awaken industry and increase the wealth of
the inhabitants and extend their influence,"[D] ordained that "none of
the King's liege people should from henceforth ship any merchandise in
going out or coming within the realm of England but only in the ships of
the King's liegeance, on penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo."[E]

This act of Richard II was the forerunner of the code of Cromwell, which
came to be called the "Great Maritime Charter of England," and the
fundamental principles of which held up to the second quarter of the
nineteenth century.

Under Charles I was enacted (1646) the first restrictive act with
relation to the commerce of the colonies, which ordained "That none in