10 
WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
long as their quality remains good enough to make their value suffice 
for the warehouse dues and customs fees. 
Until recently American firms made but little direct use of Aus 
trian warehouses ; but since about a year the warehouses of the Erste 
Oesterreichisehe Aktiengesellschaft have been patronized regularly 
by several American manufacturers of leather. All nationalities are 
treated exactly alike. 
Vienna not being a seaport, there are no facilities for the removal 
of goods from boat to warehouse. 
CUSTOMS SUPERVISION. 
A customs office is established at the expense of the administrators 
in the warehouse itself, and the supervision is exercised by one upper 
and four ordinary imperial customs officials and the properly organ 
ized military guardians for dutiable goods. This enables convenient 
and prompt discharge of the work in connection with the custom 
house. 
W. A. IluiiLEE, Consul-General. 
Vienna, Austria, October 31,1901^. 
TRIESTE. 
(From United States Consul Hossfeld, Trieste, Austria.) 
HISTORY OF WAREHOUSES. 
The first Austrian law, or rather ministerial decree, authorizing the 
erection and regulating the administration of public warehouses 
appeared in 1866. Its object was “ To secure to commerce every pos 
sible facility contemplated by the general tariff law, to aid the free 
circulation of merchandise, and to improve commercial credit.” 
The first public warehouses within the free-port territory, or free 
zone, of the port of Trieste were erected in 1887. They were the prop 
erty of a chartered company and were for a time managed jointly by 
the chamber of commerce and the city. Although the business of the 
new institution was upon the whole carefully and economically con 
ducted, it resulted every year in a considerable deficit, and in 1894 the 
Government was prevailed upon to purchase the warehouses and to 
manage them on its own account. They are still far from being self- 
supporting, and their annual deficit must be met by governmental 
appropriations. 
DIMENSIONS AND ORIGINAL COST OF WAREHOUSES. 
The area (in square yards) of the free port, its warehouses, and 
appurtenances, etc., is as follows: Entire free zone, 499,124; basins, 
233,959; quays, 101,897; warehouses, 67,254; loading sheds (hangars), 
58,927; available for new warehouses, 192,420; available for new 
loading sheds, 55,030. The total length of quays is 3,895 yards. 
The total original cost of the warehouses is 27,600,000 crowns 
($5,602,800), of which sum 3,900,000 crowns ($791,700) and 640,000