on had become so unsatisfactory that, as the American consul at
Budapest wrote, the passing of a new navigation-development law by
Hungary's Parliament had, it was believed, become a pressing
necessity.[DM]

* * * * *

In 1909 the Austrian Government guaranteed a maximum sum of one million
crowns (approximating $200,000) annually to the Austro-American Shipping
Company for their service between Trieste and Brazil and Argentine
ports. Should the service tend successfully to promote home industries
and agriculture, this subsidy was to be increased, the amount of
increase to depend upon the amount of cargo carried in excess of a
certain minimum. The contract was to run for fifteen years from January
1, 1910. The service, beginning with sailings three times a month, was
to become weekly on January 1, 1911.[DN]

The total Austria-Hungary tonnage in 1910-11 was recorded at 779,029
tons.[DO]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote DD: Meeker.]

[Footnote DE: U.S. Con. Rept., Jan., 1890, no. 112, p. 95-96.]

[Footnote DF: U.S. Con. Repts., vol. XXXII, 1890, no. 112, pp. 23-24.]

[Footnote DG: Meeker.]

[Footnote DH: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 282, March, 1904, pp. 645-646.]

[Footnote DI: Meeker.]

[Footnote DJ: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 320, July, 1907, p. 180.]

[Footnote DK: Meeker.]

[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
perplexities arose that at length the whole subject was r