contract called for an increase of speed to the Levant and the
Orient. The Suez Canal tolls were to be paid by the Government as
before.

* * * * *

The Kingdom of Hungary grants bounties to Hungarian ships, or ships
owned in greater part by Hungarian subjects, independently of the
Imperial Government. Her first general bounty law was also enacted in
1893 and was limited to ten years. The subsidies granted were of two
classes--premium on purchase, and a mileage bounty. The purchase subsidy
was based on net tonnage and was payable for a term of fifteen years
from the date of the ship's launching, reduced each succeeding year by
seven per cent; the mileage subsidy, for the same term, was in
proportion to the length of the voyages made "in the interest of
national commerce whether to or from Hungarian ports." The premiums on
purchase were thus fixed for the first year: for vessels employed in
long-distance coasting trade--sailing-ships, six krone (each 20 cents);
steamers, nine krone per ton; employed in deep-sea trade,--sailing-ships,
nine krone; steamers, twelve krone per ton. Iron or steel ships rated
first class were entitled to these bounties. The mileage subsidy was
fixed at five hellers per ton, per hundred nautical miles run. It was
offered only for voyages "to places where no company in receipt of
State subsidies is obliged to maintain regular communications;" and
it was not to be given for "petty coasting trade."[DK]

This law was succeeded by an act of 1895 granting construction bounties,
with the intent of fostering domestic shipping and the use of domestic
material. The rates were proportioned according to the amount of foreign
or domestic material used, construction with domestic product receiving
the highest bounty. These rates were: for iron or steel hulls, thirty to
sixty krone per ton; for wooden ships, ten to twenty-five krone per ton;
for engines and auxiliary machinery, ten to fifteen krone per ton of
materials used; for boilers and pipes, six to ten krone per ton of
material. The total amount to be paid out yearly was limited to the
modest figure of two hundred thousand krone ($40,600).[DL]

The law of 1895 in reality was not effective, for ships of the Hungarian
merchant marine continued to be built in foreign parts--mainly in
British yards;[DK] and while the carrying capacity had considerably
increased, the tonnage had continued to decline.[DK] By 1904 the
situati