But besides the opium, there was the China tea trade after the East India Company’s monopoly had run out, and happily this did even more than the opium to improve the evolution of the quickest fleet of ships under sail that the world has ever seen. In 1846 the 890-ton _Sea Witch_ was launched in New York, and she made a wonderful series of voyages to China and back, her best day’s run being 358 miles, which was far superior to that of any contemporary steamer. Then came such celebrated American clippers as the _Samuel Russell_, 940 tons, the _Memnon_, 1068 tons, and others. The American trade with China was so important that in one year forty-one ships with tea, silk and spices reached New York from China. The American clippers were certainly the fastest ships of the period, and the _Sea Witch_ was still to hold the record for a long time. But now come two important events which were to have noteworthy results on the Mercantile Marines of the world. The first of these was the repeal of the British Navigation Laws in 1849, and the second was the rush in that same year to California, caused by the discovery there of gold in 1848. We will deal briefly with these factors and pass on. Considerable opposition was made to this repeal, and indeed the first result was that the tonnage of British shipping entering British ports largely decreased and that of American shipping increased. After a few years this competition proved a stimulus to both countries, but especially it caused British owners to wake up in the Atlantic, as the introduction of competition into the Eastern route had already done so much good. During the ’forties and ’fifties the American Mercantile Marine was in many respects superior to the British, for the reason that the baneful monopoly had caused a kind of self-satisfaction, and therefore no progress to speak of. The long series of Navigation Laws beginning in 1651, and the steady, comfortable, close trade to the East, had lulled British shipping into a kind of stupor. It was only when competition was thrown open to the world that British shipping really got going. The first American ship to carry tea from China to England was the _Oriental_, which left China in August 1850 and reached the London River ninety-seven days out from Hong-Kong with 1600 tons. This was the fastest passage which had yet been made to England. As a beautiful, powerful, speedy, well-found ship the like of her had never been met with in the Thames. Those who had never seen anything but the East Indiamen were amazed at the innovation by the United States Mercantile Marine. But the shock did a world of good. The arrival of tea, in an American ship, in record time, from a country where there had been a British monopoly for so long, caused shipowners and builders furiously to think.