4 PORT ECONOMICS
has no hinterland : no great population like London or
New York; no great trading and manufacturing districts
like Antwerp and Rotterdam; nothing to induce and
develop goods traffic. In fact, its very position at the
extremity of a narrow peninsula reduces its capacity for
development in this respect, since there is so small a proportion
 of land area to water area in the immediate
neighbourhood of the port.
This is an aspect of the influence of a hinterland which
deserves notice. Other things being equal, the greater
the land area in the vicinity of a port, the greater the
possibilities of trade, since it implies greater scope for the
establishment of conditions which foster trade. A circle
of 50 miles radius described round London as centre,
embraces an overwhelming preponderance of land to water:
it is nearly all land—actual and potential sites for habitations,
 manufactures and industries. Similar circles drawn
round Durban and Madras enclose roughly half land and
half water—the scope for habitable and industrial areas
is materially reduced. Round Cherbourg, the preponderance
 of water area is indubitable—there is relatively very
little land area. It is a significant fact that the great
commercial ports of the world are not located at the
extremities of narrow peninsulas.
But the argument must not be pressed too far. Vast
tracts of land which are sparsely populated and unproductive
 cannot be compared in importance with much
smaller areas which are districts of intensive industry
and dense population. There is a much larger proportion
of land area round Limerick than there is round Belfast,
but the relative importance of the two ports is emphatically
in the inverse order. Yet despite this and other modifying
conditions, the general trend of the dictum is true; the
importance of a port depends upon the extent of its
hinterland.
In concluding these remarks on the hinterland of ports,
it should be pointed out that hinterlands may overlap

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