[Footnote DL: Meeker. Also Parl. papers, Com., 1909, no. 4, p. 8.]

[Footnote DM: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 283, April, 1904, p. 304.]

[Footnote DN: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 352, Jan., 1910, p. 45.]

[Footnote DO: Lloyd's Register, 1910-11.]




CHAPTER VII

ITALY


Early after its establishment in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy adopted a
subsidy system with the object of reviving and upbuilding the then
languishing Italian merchant marine. This policy was instituted in 1866
with the grant of premiums on the construction of wooden ships. At the
same time materials used in the construction, repair, or enlargement of
ships were made duty-free.[DP]

For a while under these conditions, before iron ships had come much into
use, the merchant marine prospered. Then it again began to languish; and
in 1881 the promulgation of the French general bounty law was made the
special occasion for considering the adoption of a similar measure.[DQ]
The draft of a bill modelled after that law was promptly introduced in
the Chamber of Deputies, in February. But with its consideration such