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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow MERCHANT VESSELS APPRENTICESHIP BILL 13 March 1823 - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence

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MERCHANT VESSELS APPRENTICESHIP BILL 13 March 1823 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 5 Speeches and Evidence 1815-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


MERCHANT VESSELS APPRENTICESHIP BILL
13 March 1823

Mr. Huskisson moved for leave to bring in a bill enacting that every merchant vessel should have a number of apprentices in proportion to her tonnage.

Mr. Ricardo wished to know whether the sailors were friendly to the measure. He had no doubt that their employers were so; because they would be enabled to lower the rate of wages by increasing the number of apprentices. He thought the navy would not receive that benefit from it, which seemed to be anticipated. Our sailors would seek employment in the merchant service of other countries, if the rate of wages was unduly lowered in their own. Should that be the case, where would gentlemen find that nursery for the navy, of which they now talked so largely?

[See further, p. 276.]