Foreign trade zones (or free ports)

Bibliographic data

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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part 1. General analysis

Collection:: Economics Books

FOREIGN TRADE ZONES : 9 countries were for centuries dependent on London; in the last 30 years there has been a race for freedom among them. When Hamburg exported and imported via London, the English middleman invariably took toll on all that passed through his hands. The German manufacturer paid more than the English to get his goods to market; he paid the costs of shipping his goods to England and trans- shipping them there. If the English liner had a full cargo, it was the German goods that waited for the next boat. Moreover, sales are often preceded by a considerable correspondence. There were frequent complaints regarding the delaying of German mails sent by English boats. But the speedier steamers of regular lines are necessary for more than the mails. German export industries have so much invested in them that money can not lie idly tied up in their prod- ucts, waiting for a tramp to get a full cargo. Many goods are exposed to serious deterioration in a long voyage; in the case of others the duration of transporta- tion is an important factor in determining the selling price. Many orders for manufactured goods stipulate immediate delivery. Exporting industries and regular steamship lines are indissolubly bound up together. oe ge 4 aks ®# % * (German agriculture demands fertilizers; yet even so it can not sup- port the population of the Empire. Foreign lands must send foodstuffs and the aw materials of industry; to pay for them Germany exports manufactures. Under these new conditions it was ridiculous for Germany or Hamburg to be dependent on casual tramp service or indirect steamship “line’’ connection with foreign ports. As the trade relations sketched above developed, direct German lines were created to meet them, nor did these latter always wait until the volume of trade promised a certain profit from the establishment of a line. For instance, in 1871 the Hamburg-American Line established a service to the West Indies, which remained a losing investment until 1879. For years the same fate met its line to North Brazil. A settled purpose made itself manifest in the steps that were taken to establish at Hamburg a great world port, and in the years prior to 1888 a large and important transshipment and consignment trade was developed. Hamburg became the great distributing center for. northern Europe. The ships of the world brought goods in full cargoes to Hamburg, where they were warehoused and later re- axported to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. When the German Empire was formed, Hamburg, as well as other of the North European cities, found its transshipment trade more important than the direct imports and exports for which it was the recognized port of entry. Its overseas lines did a huge business with the Baltic, carrying homeward bound more freight for non- German Baltic ports than for the interior of Germany. Hamburg and Bremen entered the German Empire only on condition that they should remain outside the Customs Union. Their traders did not want customs officials levying duties upon all imported goods or forcing the maintenance of an expensive system of bonded ware- houses to escape customs levies. Unhindered by customs officials, ships came and went, mixed manufactured goods were stored for export or transshipment without hindrance, and Hamburg remained like a foreign island or a free state on German soil.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Foreign trade zones (or free ports)

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation