The extraordinary demands for shipping on the outbreak of war led to their production with still more extraordinary rapidity, and furnished, at the same time, the most convincing proofs that we had within ourselves resources far beyond all other nations for meeting the emergency of war, without the necessity of keeping up a large and expensive standing navy, especially as such a navy must always be in a state of transition. The high rates of freight then offered for transports, ranging from 20_s._ to 30_s._ a register-ton per month for sailing vessels, and from 35_s._ to 65_s._ per gross register-ton for steamers,[171] produced not merely all the vessels required for our own transport service,[172] but, also, for the wants of France, whose armies without our aid could not have been conveyed to the Crimea.[173] With such rapidity, indeed, were sailing ships produced, that the supply not merely soon overtook, but greatly exceeded the demand; the consequence, of course, being a great reaction in prices. Steam-vessels, in the construction of which there had been a large amount of speculation, likewise felt ere long the depression, and before the close of 1855 the rates for these had fallen to 40_s._ and 35_s._ per ton per month: the surplus steamers, however, found their way, in the end, to the advantage of all concerned, into trades formerly carried on by sailing vessels. [Sidenote: Reaction.] Although the Russian war had created at first an unusual demand for vessels of every description, and had given an extraordinary impulse to ship-building, prudent shipowners soon foresaw that so sudden a rush of prosperity could not long endure without as sudden a revulsion, and “that it was fallacious to suppose that the same demand would continue even while the war lasted.”[174] [Sidenote: Transport service.] Nor was it less apparent that the number of vessels engaged by Government exceeded what was _actually_ required for the prosecution of the war, and that, if hostilities continued, the number would be materially reduced as soon as something like an organised system had been established.[175] Such, indeed, proved to be the case; for, when a temporary Transport Board was appointed, various vessels were discharged, and the rates of freight for sailing ships, which had averaged 1_l._ 7_s._ 7_d._ per ton, fell to 15_s._ 10_d._ per ton. Indeed, there can be no doubt that, had there been a well-organised board in operation when war was declared, the sea transport service, which cost this country 15,000,000_l._ sterling during that brief and unhappy war, would have been far more efficiently conducted for two-thirds that amount.[176]