114 PORT ECONOMICS
also sends salt, and Staffordshire pottery, through the
Mersey port.
The transatlantic service has always been prominent
on the Mersey, and, though of late years the passenger
traffic has largely been transferred to Southampton,
there is a numerous fleet of cargo and intermediate
liners which traverse the Atlantic between Liverpool
and American ports. Tobacco, sugar, cotton, corn, and
provisions are important articles of trade; latterly, there
has been a considerable expansion in the oil trade.
The dock systems of Liverpool and Birkenhead are
very extensive and complete, totalling just over 600 acres
of enclosed water area, while the dock quays aggregate
36 miles in length.
In contradistinction to London, Liverpool is not a barge
port, not more than ro per cent of the goods being dealt
with overside. The more modern docks are equipped with
railway tracks, both on the quay and behind the transit
sheds, and every effort is made to induce the use of these
connections. The cartage interest, however, is very
powerful and well established, so that a considerable
portion of the traffic at the Liverpool Docks is still conveyed
by horse-drawn lorries. The warehouse business is
important in the city because inland manufacturers are
not always in a position, from various causes, to take
delivery of consignments direct.
MANCHESTER
The port of Manchester claims a notice among British
ports, not merely on account of its general importance,
which is considerable (it ranks fourth in the British Isles),
but also and mainly because it is an entirely artificial
production due to the enterprise and indefatigable exertions
of an energetic body of business men who foresaw an
adequate recompense for their efforts at the end of a long
period of years. The inception of the port dates from
June, 1882, when a preliminary meeting of merchants and