The largest privately owned shipping company in the world is the Wilson Line, and it is also one of the oldest. It traces its beginnings to 1835 and operates ships between Great Britain and Scandinavia as well as between Britain and the Far East, and to the United States. It also operates ships to South America and other parts of the world. The World War radically affected steamship lines, almost eliminating some and crippling many. The peace brought about the enlargement of several at the expense of the German lines that, during the preceding two decades, had thrust their way to the very forefront of the shipping world, only to lose it all by the terribly mistaken policies that they themselves had helped to foster. In 1900 the two greatest steamship lines in the world were the Hamburg-American and the North German Lloyd. In 1910 they were surpassed only by a consolidation of seven British and American lines known as the International Mercantile Marine. Yet these two huge companies, at the close of the World War, were left with hardly more than a handful of ships each, all of their greatest liners, as well as most of their smaller ones, having been taken from them to sail under the British, American, French, and other flags. Consequently, the greatest steamship company to-day—and it is so great as to have no close second—is the International Mercantile Marine, made up of the White Star, the Leyland, the American, and the Atlantic Transport lines, the Dominion and British North Atlantic Company, the National Steamship Company, and some other allied shipping interests. This combination of shipping lines is controlled by British and American capital, but most of its ships sail under the British flag. American shipping laws are partly responsible for this, because of numerous restrictions they insist upon, which have proved to be detrimental to lines operating ships under the American flag. Other lines, entirely American owned, have been transferred to foreign register for the same reason.