No. 321.
Mr. Riotte to Mr. Fish.
Leon , October 20, 1872. (Received Nov. 18.)
Sir: This government has recently published a treaty celebrated with that of Italy, March 6, 1868, article 4 whereof contains the following stipulation, viz:
“The citizens of the contracting parties can equally practice in the ports of the two countries the coastwise trade and cabotage, not paying at each port higher duties than those paid by the national vessels.”
[Page 744]Considering that Nicaragua possesses no mercantile marine at all, the stipulation redounds to the benefit of Italy. Our treaty with Nicaragua, on the contrary, Article II, in fine, prohibits the coastwise trade, a clause the operation whereof, for the reason stated, works only against our shipping.
Now there seems no doubt that, by virtue of the most-favored-nation clause in our treaty with Nicaragua, we may claim the same privilege as that accorded to Italy. But there exists a grave consideration which has prevented me from so doing, and upon which I would like to be instructed. At the first glance it would seem as if, under the circumstances, the admission of the cabotage would be strictly in our favor, yet, if we could claim the right of the coastwise trade in Nicaragua, her flag would, of course, be entitled to the same privilege on our shores. Now, I do not apprehend that the Nicaraguans would at once become a seafaring nation, but I do apprehend that European merchantmen would procure Nicaraguan nationality, to the end of practicing the coastwise trade along the coasts of the United States. And it seems to me as if the disadvantages arising to our marine thus would be a good deal graver than any advantages it might be able to reap from the coastwise trade in Nicaragua.
Practically the steamships of the Panama Railroad Company, with the full knowledge and approval of the Nicaraguan authorities and to the benefit of the country, are carrying on coastwise trade between the ports of Corinto and that of San Juan del Sur; and fearing that under changed circumstances, so easy to happen in these countries, this might be taken as a cause for complaint against the steamers, in conversation with the president and ministers I have several times urged upon them the expediency of surrendering that privilegium, which for this country is, indeed, an odiosum, referring at the same time to the absolute want and impossibility of land communication between their ports on either ocean, and the lack of a national marine, and explaining the history and ends of Minister Sully’s invention of cabotage. They agreed fully with my views; but, being blindly wedded to old and particularly French precedents, and ever suspicious of being overreached at intimations coming from American sources, also being too indolent to study a question out of the beaten track, they have never moved in the matter. I am firmly persuaded that the permission of coastwise trade by our merchant marine along the Nicaraguan coasts would benefit even more Nicaragua than ourselves, and that, in case of the construction of the interoceanic canal, it will become a positive necessity.
I have, &c.,