These two volumes present a unique resource on the history and development of merchant shipping from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the latter decades of the nineteenth. International in coverage - including Britain, the United States, France, Holland, India, and the Middle East - the volumes provide a rich compendium of facts and figures on all aspects of merchant shipping, international commerce and trade, seamanship and mercantile law. Among the topics covered are the repeal of the Navigation Laws, the education of merchant seamen, the progress of steam navigation in Europe,...