avel are called trade routes; and the reasons
which have determined them are to be sought in the history of the
world.

Notwithstanding all the familiar and unfamiliar dangers of the sea,
both travel and traffic by water have always been easier and cheaper
than by land. The commercial greatness of Holland was due not only to
her shipping at sea, but also to the numerous tranquil water-ways
which gave such cheap and easy access to her own interior and to that
of Germany. This advantage of carriage by water over that by land was
yet more marked in a period when roads were few and very bad, wars
frequent and society unsettled, as was the case two hundred years ago.
Sea traffic then went in peril of robbers, but was nevertheless safer
and quicker than that by land. A Dutch writer of that time, estimating
the chances of his country in a war with England, notices among other
things that the water-ways of England failed to penetrate the country
sufficiently; therefore, the roads being bad, goods from one part of
the kingdom to the other must go by sea, and be exposed to capture by
the way. As regards purely internal trade, this danger has generally
disappeared at the present day. In most civilized countries, now, the
destruction or disappearance of the coasting trade would only be an
inconvenience, although water transit is still the cheaper.
Nevertheless, as late as the wars of the French Republic and the First
Empire, those who are familiar with the history of the period, and the
light naval literature that has grown up around it, know how constant
is the mention of convoys stealing from point to point along the
French coast, although the sea swarmed with English cruisers and there
were good inland roads.

Under modern conditions, however, home trade is but a part of the
business of a country bordering on the sea. Foreign necessaries or
luxuries must be brought to its ports, either in its own or in foreign
ships, which will return, bearing in exchange the products of the
country, whether they be the fruits of the earth or the works of men's
hands; and it is the wish of every nation that this shipping business
should be done by its own vessels. The ships that thus sail to and fro
must have secure ports to which to return, and must, as far as
possible, be followed by the protection of their country throughout
the voyage.

This protection in time of war must be extended by armed shipping. The
necessity of a navy, in the res