5721. NAVIGATION, Industrial value.—
Our navigation * * * as a branch of
industry * * * is valuable * * *. Its
value, as a branch of industry, is enhanced
by the dependence of so many other branches
on it. In times of general peace it multiplies
competitors for employment in transportation,
and so keeps that at its proper level;
and in times of war, that is to say, when
those nations who may be our principal
carriers, shall be at war with each other, if
we have not within ourselves the means of
transportation, our produce must be exported
in belligerent vessels, at the increased expense
of war-freight and insurance, and the
articles which will not bear that, must perish
on our hands.—
Foreign Commerce Report. Washington ed. vii, 647.
Ford ed., vi, 480.
(Dec. 1793)
