Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: The 1786 Merchant Shipping Act

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Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: The 1786 Merchant Shipping Act

AssociatedAssociated with Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)

Medallist John Pinches, Medallists

DateMay 2004

Object NameMedal

MediumSterling Silver

ClassificationsMedals

AcquisitionPresented in 2004 by Dr Joan M Burrell.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS072500.29

Keywords

About MeBy the end of the 18th century Britain had acquired the largest merchant fleet the world had ever seen. That British ships predominated in world trade bore witness to the enterprise and commercial skill of her merchants and shipowners. But this pre-eminence also owed much to the powerful support of the State which for long recognised that success in trade depended upon protective legislation.

Legislation mainly took the form of Navigation Laws which had evolved from an Act passed as early as 1381 in the reign of Richard II. Between 1650 and 1786 several Acts extended and elaborated the doctrine of protection for British shipping, in recognition of the crucial role played by the industry in peace and war. The philosophy in forming the legislation was broadly mercantilist in intention -a sustained and purposive policy of economic nationalism aimed at fostering British shipping and commerce by restricting the incidence of foreign competition. These aims were achieved by reserving the trade of the colonies and plantations to ships which were British owned and built -colonial shipping being recognised as British in this context. The coasting trade was reserved entirely to British ships, and foreign vessels were permitted only limited access to British ports and trades.

This policy culminated in the great Act of 1786, 'an Act for the further increase and encouragement of shipping and navigation', the preamble of which acknowledged that 'the wealth and strength of this Kingdom, and the Prosperity and Safety of every part of the British Empire, greatly depend on the Encouragement given to Shipping and Navigation '.

The Act represented at one and the same time the final phase of mercantilism, and the foundation of modern registry law, which remains today essentially based upon the principles embodied in the 1786 Act. Some of the provisions of the Act concerning registry have, therefore, an abiding influence upon the merchant marine, even though the protective clauses of the Act were to be swept away in the era of free trade which was to follow in the 1840S.

The Act of 1786 initiated the statutory registry of all merchant ships seeking the privileges of the British flag: henceforth British ships, with certain limited exceptions, were intended to be British built and largely British manned. The Act embodied the procedures for recording the ownership, transfer and mortgage of shares in ships, thus encouraging ownership by providing a centrally supervised record of the legal title in ships acceptable in law. By specifying how tonnage was to be determined it became possible for the first time to compile accurate statistics relating to shipping and shipbuilding and such records survive in almost continuous form from that day to this.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.