76 
FOREIGN TRADE ZONES 
anced loading. The concentration of foreign goods in United States 
ports would enable our ships to secure more favorable cargoes to 
such countries. Among these are included the countries of Central 
and South America and the countries and provinces of the West 
Indies, the markets of which we should strive to develop more fully. 
INFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN FREE PORTS ON THEIR MERCHANT MARINE 
AND SHIPPING 
In connection with the study of free ports and the advisability of 
establishing such ports in the United States, consideration has been 
siven to the question of the influence which existing free ports of 
Europe have exercised on the merchant marine and shipping. 
In his report on the free port of Copenhagen, Consul General 
Marion Letcher expresses the view that although the tonnage of 
Danish ships has increased steadily during the 34 years of the exist- 
ence of the free port, the increase has been due in only a minor degree 
to the free port. The following is a quotation from his report: 
It is interesting to note, in regard to the question of Danish shipping, that 
statistics show that the actual number of Danish ships which entered the Copen- 
hagen Harbor decreased between 1900 and 1922 (the last year for which the 
statistics are stated), the total number in the first year mentioned being 13,274 
and in the latter 10,936. The loss in numbers, however, was offset by an increase 
in tonnage, the figures being 2,146 thousand tons against 2,527, respectively. 
The foreign ships entering the harbor also decreased from 7,760 to 4,727, but 
with increasing tonnage, the figures being 1,196 thousand tons against 1,236. 
Of the 4,727 foreign vessels which entered the harbor in 1922, 2,838 were Swedish, 
281 Norwegian, 858 German, 244 Dutch, 179 English, 241 Finnish, 38 American, 
and 53 of other nationalities. The figures stated do not include the ferry boats 
operating between the free port and Malmo, Sweden. 
Statistics showing the number of ships and the tonnage (net reg- 
stered) which entered the general harbor and free port, respectively, 
reveal that in 1910, 16,003 ships of 2,763 tons entered the general 
harbor, while 2,196 ships of 1,329 tons entered the free port. In 1925 
15,637 ships of 3,622 tons entered the general harbor as against 1,757 
ships of 1,271 tons for the free port, and in 1926, 16,660 ships entered 
the general harbor of 3,854 tons, while 1,730 ships of 1,351 tons 
entered the free port. The year 1927 shows that 16,922 ships came 
into the general harbor of 4,064 tons as compared with 1,726 ships 
of 1,471 tons in the free port. 
Consul R. A. Bornstein points out that the free port of Malmo can 
hardly be said to have exercised any notable influence on the devel- 
opment of the merchant marine. He states that: 
The established trade routes and business practices are difficult to change, 
and establishment of the local free port can not be said to have diverted any con- 
siderable portion of the Scandinavian and Baltic transshipment trade from the 
Danish capital, which for many years has been regarded as the natural entrepdt 
for Scandinavia by foreign business men.