an
line, and four hundred thousand for a branch line connecting Trieste
with the Australian line at Alexandria. The contracts in accordance with
it all went to the North German Lloyd Company, of Bremen. The convention
between the Government and this company required that the new vessels to
be furnished must be built in German yards and of German material. The
coal supply was, as far as practicable, to be of German product. The
chancellor was empowered to take over all the company's steamers for the
mobilization of the navy, at their full value, or on hire at proper
compensation. The sale or loan of a steamer to a foreign power could be
made only by permission of the chancellor. The number of voyages to be
made on each line yearly, and the rate of speed, were set down in
careful detail. Failure to observe the table of voyages, without
sufficient reason, subjected the company to heavy penalties. All persons
employed in connection with the mail service were, if practicable, to be
German subjects. All officers in the service of the empire, relief
crews, weapons, ammunition, equipments, or supplies for the imperial
navy, were to be carried at twenty per cent under the regular
tariff.[CM]

Subsequent laws made additions to the free list of raw and manufactured
shipbuilding material; and preferential rates on the State railroads
were arranged for the transportation of steel, iron, timber, from the
interior, where these are found at an average distance of some four
hundred miles from the coast, to the ship-yards.[CN] Speedily large and
superior steamships were designed and turned out from the enlarged
ship-yards, the first ocean flyer being the _Auguste Victoria_ for the
Hamburg-American Line. In 1890 a subsidy of ninety thousand marks
annually was granted for an East African line on a ten-years' contract.
Within less than six years the establishment of a fortnightly Asiatic
service was agitated; and in 1896 a bill granting a yearly subsidy of
one million four hundred thousand marks therefor, was brought before the
Reichstag. If this were forthcoming the North German Lloyd agreed,
besides furnishing the fortnightly service, to increase the speed of
their steamers, to send ships direct to Japan, and to meet all
requirements of the Admiralty with respect to ships and crews.[CO]

Now the advocates of further subsidies maintained that the policy
instituted with the law of 1885 had proved its effectiveness. The
indirect advantages