perplexities arose that at length the whole subject was referred to a
commission of inquiry, to investigate and report a more satisfactory
one. The result of this inquiry was a bill which became law December 6,
1885, to continue in force for ten years.

This law provided for general construction subsidies, on the following
scale: for steamers and sailing-ships built of iron or steel, sixty lire
($11.58) per gross ton; for steam or sailing ships built of wood,
fifteen lire; for _galleggianti_ (floating material: the term signifying
merchant ships navigating the Italian seaboard, rivers, and lakes, but
not provided with certificates of nationality), of iron or steel, thirty
lire; for construction and repairs of marine engines, ten lire per
quintal; for marine boilers, six lire per hundred kilograms of weight.
These bounties were to be increased from 10 to 20 per cent (according to
the degree of speed and other desirable qualities shown) for steamers
built on plans approved by the Government engineers as to be
convertible into cruisers, showing a speed of not less than fourteen
knots an hour, and with sufficient coal-carrying space to steam four
thousand miles at ten knots. The law was applicable to ships bought
abroad as well as those of domestic build. But it forbade the sale or
charter to a foreigner of any steamer upon which the bounty had been
paid, except by Government permission. The laws of 1866 granting
premiums and free entry to shipbuilding materials were suspended during
the ten years' term of this act.[DR]

In 1888, a new tariff of the previous year (July, 1887) having increased
the customs duties on shipbuilding materials, additional bounties on
construction and repair were granted by a royal decree to offset these
disadvantages to the shipbuilders. A provision was added for the payment
of fifty lire per gross ton for construction of war-ships, and eight and