The report concerns three facets that can be viewed as promoting the national merchant marine:

a. financial facilities, such as subsidies; b. registration facilities by which foreign ship tonnage is attracted; c. facilities with regard to nationality and wages of the ship's crew so as to enable the shipowner to operate at lower costs.

The subject will be treated in two parts. Part I traces these aspects on the national level, at first factually and then in a legal light. In the second part, the findings are tested against the norms of international law.