United Kingdom legislation
| Act of Parliament | |
 Parliament of the United Kingdom | |
| Long title | An Act for regulating the Vessels carrying Passengers from the United Kingdom to his Majesty's Plantations and Settlements abroad, or to Foreign Parts, with respect to the Number of such Passengers. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 43 Geo. 3. c. 56 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 24 June 1803 |
| Commencement | 1803 |
| Repealed | 1826 |
| Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Act 43 Geo. 3. c. 56, sometimes called the Passenger Vessels Act 1803 or the Passenger Act 1803, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in 1803. It was the first of many laws intended to regulate the transportation of immigrants and to protect emigrants on board ships from exploitation by transportation companies (such as exorbitant rates and consequent subjection to poor sanitary conditions). The Passenger Act required improved conditions relating to hygiene, food and comfort for passengers travelling to North America. However, this law was not always followed by transportation providers and the spread of infectious diseases such as typhus continued.
This act was established under humanitarian pretences, but the more practical and desired effect was to raise the cost of passage to prevent as many as possible from leaving. Landlords who feared the emigration of their tenants lobbied extensively for this piece of legislation, and where one could previously travel to Canada for £3–4, the price for the same passage was in some cases raised to £10 or more (equivalent to £1,150 in 2023). The ability to move abroad was subsequently limited to a small class of people until it was repealed in 1826.
Notes and references
- McGeachy. Argyll, 1730-1850. John Donald. 2005. p 333. Edmond, Migrations: Journeys in Time and Place, 2013, p 53. "Passenger Vessels Act": Cregreen (ed), Argyll Estate Instructions, (1964) 1 Publications of the Scottish Historical Society (Fourth Series) 73; The Canada Year Book 1957-58, p 166; Merkin, Marine Insurance: A Legal History, Edward Elgar, 2021, p cxli.
- (1930) 81 Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 263. Allen and Thompson (eds), Contrast and Connection: Bicentennial Essays in Anglo-American History, Ohio University Press, 1976, p 366. "Passenger Act": (1940) 2 The Cambridge History of the British Empire 406; Chester, The English Administrative System, 1780-1870, Clarendon Press, 1981, pp 110 & 141; (1970) British Book News 486; (1969) 2 Essays in Scotch-Irish History 56.
- Approximately £200 in 2001 pounds, according to the price indices in House of Commons Research Paper 02/44, "Inflation: the value of the pound 1750–2001" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2009., 11 July 2002
- "Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience". Library and Archives Canada.
- Hunter, James (2008). The Making of the Crofting Community. Birlinn. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-85790-286-3.
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