56 
WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
sequently the rates of storage are lower than those charged in the 
modern storing houses of the company. 
Almost all lines of business, particularly in foreign products of 
all classes, in order to facilitate transit trade without customs inter 
ference, are represented in the free harbor. Coffee is the chief arti 
cle stored in these warehouses. The inventory at the end of last 
year showed a stock of almost 1,500,000 bags in the stores of the com 
pany. Other articles stored in these warehouses are meats, lard, oil, 
fruits, grains and seeds, foodstuffs, lumber, sugar, metal and metal 
goods, wines and liquors, etc. 
Americans make considerable use of these warehouses. As the 
rates of storage are considerably lower than those for storage in 
American bonded warehouses, and as there is no interference on the 
part of the custom-house authorities and almost no formalities con 
nected with the entry of merchandise and the storing of the same, 
large quantities of American whisky, for instance, are permanently 
stored in the free harbor, such whisky being kept in store here until 
properly seasoned, when it is reshipped to the United States. Fur 
thermore, all the large American firms represented in this city, such 
as the largo packing companies, the more important harvesting and 
sewing machine companies, hardware manufactories, etc., constantly 
store goods in local bonded warehouses. All nationalities are treated 
exactly alike by the administrators of the warehouses. 
Almost all warehouses, both those located in the free harbor and 
those in the city, within the customs union, are situated along the 
waterways in the city and harbors, and goods may be removed from 
boat directly to warehouse and vice versa. The charges therefor 
vary between 25 and 75 cents per ton, according to the quantities 
transported. 
As T have said above, the customs officials do not exercise any super 
vision over the warehouses within the free harbor, which is treated 
exactly like a foreign country. 
WAREHOUSES IN THE CITY. 
Besides the several warehouses in the free harbor, there are also ß 
number of bonded stores and warehouses in the city proper. When 
Hamburg was annexed to the customs union in 1888 there were hun 
dreds of merchants and wholesale dealers who chiefly dealt in and 
exported to foreign countries foreign-made goods, and who owned of 
had long-running contracts for warehouses in the city within the ne# 
customs boundary. To avoid prejudicing their interests, or other 
wise compromising them, these people were permitted to continue to 
store in their private warehouses dutiable goods upon which the duty 
had not yet been collected, under the following conditions: 
Goods upon which the customs authorities have a claim can bo 
stored in private warehouses, with or without joint locking by the cus 
toms authorities and the owner. These private warehouses aro 
classed as: (a) Transit warehouses, where the identity of each separ 
ate package is kept track of, and some of the goods stored are intended 
for consumption within the customs district, and at the same tim e 
some are intended, partly or wholly, for consumption in foreign 
countries, (b) Division warehouses, when the identity of each separ 
ate package is not kept track of, and no distinction is made betweei'