Foreign trade zones (or free ports)

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1801857903

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-199077

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Foreign trade zones (or free ports)

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: United States Government Printing Off.

Year of publication:: 1929

Scope:: IX, 322 S; Ill., graph. Darst

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part 1. General analysis

Collection:: Economics Books

FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Belgium. One of the chief reasons why the merchants of this time selected Antwerp as the place in which to develop business was the fact that trade there was almost entirely unrestricted. It is said that, although there have been greater cities and greater markets, never before nor since has the world seen such concentration of the trade of different peoples as at Antwerp during the first part of the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century Spain was by far the greatest power in Europe. The decay of Spain’s power began with the revolt of the Netherlands in 1579 and the unsuccessful attack of the armada on England in 1588. The Netherlands rapidly out- stripped the southern low countries (now Belgium) on account of the colonial commerce of the Dutch merchants and because this com- merce was reflected in business activity at home, and the great com- merce of Antwerp passed to Amsterdam. In the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch had hardly any serious rivalry to contend with in commerce. The latter half of the seventeenth cen- tury, however, and the first of the eighteenth were filled with a bitter struggle for supremacy in the shipping and carrying trade between the Dutch and the English, and in the course of the period the English took from the Dutch the leadership in this trade, and London devel- oped as the great consignment market of the world, a position which it still holds. During all this period commerce was hindered by the persistence of barriers to the development of trade and manufacture which had grown up in the medieval system of tolls and guilds and by local vari- ations in laws. The various States and even the individual cities had their own tariff laws, and in some the tariff wall was constructed so high as to threaten destruction of the great international trade which had grown up through the centuries. Thus the peninsula of Italy was divided among seven independent States, six of which had protective tariffs. As late as 1840 a Milan manufacturer shipping silks to Florence had to pass eight customs stations in 150 miles. In Spain duties were levied on both imports and exports, and there were many absolute prohibitions. Indeed, the enormously high cus- toms duties and the heavy taxes levied on trade are among the reasons why Spain failed to maintain her position and build up a great com- mercial empire. During the seventeenth century the Government of England drew a considerable portion of its revenue from the customs duties, the main purpose of these duties, however, being the protection of trade. The importation of manufactured wares was in many cases forbidden or heavily taxed in order that foreigners might not draw money for work which Englishmen might do. Raw materials like wool were kept in the country by duties or taxes, while the export of other wares which put foreigners in debt to England was encour- aged. Prior to the nineteenth century most of the separate States

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