Note 31 — FREE TRADE AT ITS ZENITH.
Reading edition
British tonnage. Foreign.
British tonnage to British North American colonies, 1846, 1,076,162
To United States of America, 205,123 435,399
Total tonnage in British trade to all countries, 4,294,733 1,806,282
Deduct Canadian tonnage, 1,076,162
British tonnage after losing Canada, 3,228,571
Foreign tonnage after gaining Canada, 1,076,162
—Porter's Parliamentary Tables, 1846, p. 52. 2,882,444
The repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1847 gave such an impulse to foreign shipping, that, in the first year after the loss of Canada, the foreign shipping employed in our trade would exceed the British, even supposing we only lost two-thirds of Canadian trade by its independence.