132 PORT ECONOMICS

industry is another important industry in which Cardiff
has a prominent place. The timber trade gives employ-
ment to a large number of men, and work of all kinds is
done, from house furniture to large framework construc-
tion. Ship repairing also constitutes a notable feature
of the port’s activities.

The prosperity of Cardiff has been threatened recently
by the falling off in the demands for coal from abroad,
due to various reasons. Oil is now largely used for ship
propulsion and also for locomotive engines. Several
countries are developing their natural resources in the
way of hydro-electric power. Northern Italy, for instance,
which used to take a good deal of Welsh coal, is now largely
supplied with such power from the streams of the Alps.
Then the cost of coal-obtaining has been on the up-grade
ever since the war, labour demanding higher wages and
working fewer hours; all these factors have tended to
restrict the foreign coal market and the position at the
present time is not without elements of concern.

Cardiff is a railway managed port, being one of a group
of ports in the Bristol Channel now incorporated in the
system of the Great Western Railway. It was formerly
served by a number of small lines, principally the Taff
Vale Railway, which has placed it in communication with
the adjacent coalfields of South Wales. The port, therefore,
has come specially under railway influence, and has been
developed on lines serving to foster railway traffic in the
hinterland. Having regard to the staple industries of
the district, this is not a disadvantage. The area of the
enclosed docks at the port slightly exceeds 160 acres ;
owing to the very pronounced rise and fall of the tide
(30 to 4o ft.) in the Bristol Channel, riverside wharves are
of minor serviceability, and indeed they are little used.

There are three notable ports on the Continent of
Europe which compete with London for the great volume
of world trade traversing the North Sea: Hamburg,

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