dopted by the United States. From 1793 to 1866 bounties
were given to fishing vessels and men employed in the bank and other
deep-sea fisheries,[FT] but no subsidies to the merchant marine were
granted till 1845, and these were only postal subsidies--payments in
excess of an equivalent for services to be rendered in ocean
mail-carriage. The law enacted that year had for its declared purpose
the encouragement of American ocean steamship-building and running. With
this act, therefore, the real history of Government aid to domestic
shipping in this country begins.

At the time of the adoption of this policy America was still leading the
world in ocean sailing-ships with her splendid fleets of fast-sailing
packets and "clippers", while England had taken the lead in steamships.
The law of 1845 was the culmination of a move begun in Congress in 1841,
the year after the first Cunarder had crossed from Liverpool to Halifax
and Boston. Its aim was to parry England's bold stroke for maritime
supremacy with her State-aided steamship lines, and directly to "protect
our merchant shipping from this new and strange menace."[FU] The first
move of 1841 was for an appropriation of a million dollars annually for
foreign-mails carriage in American-owned ships.[FU]

The law of 1845 (March 3) authorized the postmaster-general to contract
with American ship-owners exclusively for this service to be performed
in American vessels, steamships preferred, and by American citizens, for
a period of from four to ten years, with the proviso that Congress by
joint resolve might at any time terminate a contract. The subsidy was
embodied in the rates of postage thus fixed: upon all letters and
packets not exceeding a half-ounce in weight, between any ports of the
United States and any foreign ports not less than three thousand miles
distant, twenty-four cents, with the inland postage added; upon letters
and packets over one half-ounce in weight, and not exceeding one ounce,
forty-eight cents, and for every additional half-ounce or fraction of an
ounce, fifteen cents; to any of the West India Islands, or islands in
the Gulf of Mexico, ten cents, twenty cents, and five cents,
respectively; upon each newspaper, pamphlet, and price-current to any of
the ports and places above enumerated, three cents: inland postage to be
added in all cases. The postmaster-general was to give the preference to
such bidder as should propose to carry the mails in a steamship ra