But on the sea we were steadily gaining upon her, and in 1850-55 were nearly equal to her in aggregate tonnage.
We could build wooden vessels at less cost than England and our ships excelled hers in speed.

When steam began to compete with sail she saw her advantage.

She could build engines at less cost than we, and when, soon afterward, her ship-builders began to construct the entire steamer of iron, her advantages became evident to the whole world.
England was not content however with the superiority which these circumstances gave to her.

She did not wait for her own theory of Free-trade to work out its legitimate results, but forthwith stimulated the growth of her steam marine by the most enormous bounties ever paid by any nation to any enterprise.

To a single line of steamers running alternate weeks from Liverpool to Boston and New York, she paid nine hundred thousand dollars annually, and continued to pay at this extravagant rate for at least twenty years.
In all channels of trade where steam could be employed she paid lavish subsidies, and literally destroyed fair competition, and created for herself a practical monopoly in the building of iron steamers, and a superior share in the ocean traffic of the world.
But every step she took in the development of her steam marine by the payment of bounty, was in flat contradiction of the creed which she was at the same time advocating in those departments of trade where she could conquer her competitors without bounty.
With her superiority in navigation attained and made secure through the instrumentality of subsidies, England could afford to withdraw them.