NETHERLANDS:  AMSTERDAM.

91

At  present  the  company  own  several  warehouses  of  the  most  modern  type  and
provided  with  all  facilities  for  the  necessary  dealing  with  coffee,  gum,  tobacco,
honey,  and  indigo.  The  famous  Banda  nutmegs  are  warehoused  and  manipulated ­
  by  Blaauwhoedenveem  at  Amsterdam,  this  city  being  still  the  world’s
emporium  for  these  spices.  It  is  of  course  needless  to  add  that  the  company’s
capital  has  gradually  been  increased  and  that  its  warehouses  are  at  present  provided ­
  with  all  modern  machinery  and  railway  accommodation.  Furthermore,
the  depth  of  water  alongside  the  quays  is  such  as  to  permit  ocean  steamers  of
any  kind  to  moor  directly  in  front  of  the  warehouses.
COMMUNAL  WAREHOUSES.
^  Four  kinds  of  dock  magazines  are  distinguished  in  the  Netherlands:
Free  public  entrepôts  owned  by  the  State  or  the  municipality,  private ­
  free  entrepôts,  fictive  entrepôts,  and  particular  entrepôts.  They
do  not  differ  much,  however,  as  to  the  regulations.  The  first  two  are
under  continuous  observation  by  the  custom-house  authorities.  Both
dutiable  and  free  merchandise  may  be  stored  in  them,  but  articles
like  sugar,  wines,  spirits,  etc.,  which  are  subject  to  duties  on  a  higher
scale,  can  only  be  received  in  the  second  class.  In  the  third  and
fourth  classes  the  control  by  the  customs  officials  is  occasional  ;  the
stores  of  the  third  class,  including  the  municipal  petroleum  stores  and
tobacco  warehouses,  are  generally  confined  to  one  article.  Storehouses ­
  of  the  fourth  class  accept  all  kinds  of  goods  against  negotiable ­
  documents.  The  respective  companies,  which  are  known  as
u  veems,”  charge  themselves  with  storage  and  transport.
These  magazines  are  all  buildings  of  five  or  six  stories.  On  the
Water  side  room  is  left  in  front  for  a  crane  path  and  for  a  platform
2.50  meters  (8.2  feet)  in  width  at  the  level  of  the  first  floor.  Two
tracks  are  not,  as  a  rule,  required  in  front  at  Amsterdam,  because
much  of  the  merchandise  arrives  and  leaves  by  boat,  while  at  the  back
at  least  three  tracks  and  a  roadway  8  meters  (26.2  feet)  in  width  are
necessary.  There  are  four  tracks  at  some  warehouses.  In  the  new
communal  warehouses  the  iron  skeleton  of  the  building  in  embedded
m  about  an  inch  of  cement,  and  the  long  warehouses  are  divided  by
fireproof  walls  in  bulkhead  fashion,  without  any  doors,  in  order  to
reduce  the  dangers  from  fire.  The  lifts  and  stairways  are  outside  the
fcal  house  walls  and  connect  the  balconies.  The  width  of  the  buildings ­
  is  30  meters  (98.4  feet).  Larger  buildings  would  be  too  dark,
filie  warehouses  are,  like  the  sheds,  illuminated  by  electric  incandescent ­
  lamps.  Each  floor  of  the  building  can  support  a  load  of  2  tons  per
square  meter  (lOf  square  feet).  At  the  back  of  these  warehouses  are,
first,  the  tracks  and  roadway  we  have  spoken  of,  then  a  public  street
jind  cattle  market  and  slaughterhouses.  These  latter  buildings
have  their  fronts  on  the  quay  of  the  new  canal  (Nieuwe  Vaart).
The  new  communal  entrepôt  was  opened  on  January  1.  1900,  and
the  old  entrepôt  closed  for  general  commercial  purposes  on  December
of  the  same  year.  The  transfer  of  the  merchandise  from  the  old
the  new  entrepôt  having  for  the  most  part  been  made  when  operations ­
  were  begun  in  the  new,  on  November  1,  1900,  an  area  of  30,000
square  meters  (35,880  square  yards)  was  let,  while  about  23,000  meters
(27,500  square  yards)  remained  under  the  administration  of  the
hardens.