...ed timbers will last thirty years without repair, is only 36 to 38 dollars per ton in our different ports; while an oak ship, fitted in a similar manner, in the cheapest ports of England, Holland, or France , will cost 55 to 60 dollars per ton. This relative state of the first cost of ships existed at the date of the passage of the prohibitory law in 1792. Hence, it could not have been a merely pr...