payments: on the other hand, that all other things in the vessel, not excepting even the seamen's bedding, should bear a proportion of the loss incurred, and that the master should not be permitted to claim freight for goods so thrown overboard.[1]
Shipping of Scotland, A.D. 1249.
Extremely liberal Navigation Act.
In Scotland, as might have been expected, commerce
was of even slower growth than in England,
nor was it till the reign of Alexander III. that there
was any real maritime force; and although the
vassals of Scotland, as, for instance, the king of Man,
were required to contribute ships for the use of the
state in proportion to their lands, the king does not
appear to have considered that such merchant vessels
as these were of much value, as he passed a law
whereby his merchants were prohibited for a limited
period from exporting any goods in their own
vessels, "because some of them had been captured
by pirates, and others lost by shipwreck and by
arrestments in foreign ports." Of course, the inevitable
result followed that, for a time, the merchant
vessels of Scotland were totally extinguished. The
enactment, however, for some unaccountable reason,
seems to have given satisfaction, as the historians
of the period remark that—"in consequence of these
laws the kingdom abounded in a few years with corn,
money, cattle, sheep, and all kinds of merchandise,
and the arts flourished."[2] It is, indeed, possible that
Scotland may have imbibed the spirit of extreme
liberality in its maritime policy which then prevailed
throughout England, where it was evidently supposed
that foreign merchants brought wealth which
England could not otherwise have obtained. It is,
