PORT ECONOMICS

on the banks of rivers, by which access may be obtained
to the seas and the great ocean highways. Basle, for
instance, on the borders of Switzerland and over 450 miles
from the sea, is a port for barges and light river craft,
and it even aspires to the rank of a seaport, in that it
desires to receive vessels capable of navigating open water.
The advantage, indeed, of an actual seaboard, to a country
in regard to its foreign trade, is incalculable. More than
one war, in recent times, has been caused by the en-
deavours of a landlocked nationality to find an outlet to
the coast.

But a position on the coast-line is not an unmixed blessing
to a port, as we have already seen. The exposure to violent
storms entailed by such a location necessitates a heavy
expenditure on protective works, all of which has to be
defrayed out of trading profits, either directly, through
the charges of the port authority, or indirectly, to the
State in the form of taxation.

As indicated above, many ports are situated on the
banks of rivers at varying distances inland. Some are at
the mouths of rivers, such as Liverpool, Dublin, Bremen,
and hence may be distinguished as Estuary Ports.? Other
ports are situated some distance from the river mouth.
London is about 50 miles from the sea; so is Antwerp ;
Rouen is a thriving French port on the Seine about 80 miles
from the English Channel ; Cologne, a German port on the
Rhine, is some 200 miles from the North Sea; and Basle,
mentioned above, also on the Rhine, is over 450 miles
from the sea. Naturally, when the distance from the sea
is considerable, the navigable channel does not admit
of the passage of the larger class of vessels characteristic

1 The term Estuary is a little vague, but without being
pedantically precise, it covers roughly the extent of the river which
is appreciably affected by the tide—that is, the portion in which
there is tidal flow, in and out. This admittedly cannot strictly
apply to rivers flowing into a * tideless ” sea, such as the Medi-
terranean, but it suffices to explain the idea in a general way.
It is the region of ‘ turbulence” (Lat. @stuare, to seethe, or
boil), in which there is conflict between effluent and influent waters.

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