PORT ECONOMICS
The Port of London Authority caters not only for the
safe custody, but also for the manipulation of goods.
It has a group of large and important warehouses in the
city to which goods are taken, and both here and at the
docks a series of operations are carried out to the in-
structions and on behalf of merchants and others for the
purposes of marketing, sale and delivery. These operations
include grading and lotting, sampling and cataloguing,
weighing and measuring, mending and cooperage, blending
and mixing, vatting and bottling, and so on, in great
variety and extent.
This warehousing business is a special feature of entrepot
ports, and it is an undoubted convenience to importers,
who are not able to take immediate or total delivery, to
have a depot from which the goods can be withdrawn at
pleasure. Certain of these warehouses are what are known
as Bonded Warehouses, that is, they are set apart for the
reception of dutiable goods under Customs Seal, and the
merchant is thereby saved the necessity of making
prematurely heavy payments to H.M. Customs.
There are certain special classes of storage which merit
notice as characteristic of most modern ports. The Cold
Store, or Depot for Refrigerated Produce, is an outcome of
the enormous development of the trade in frozen meat
and other perishable edibles from overseas. Provision
is made for the reception of mutton carcases, quarters of
beef, rabbits, poultry, etc., direct from the refrigerating
chamber on shipboard, and the requisite temperature is
maintained in the store while the goods are in keeping.
Grain Silos and warehouses are another feature of
modern civilization to meet the requirements of large
importations of cereals. The silo is the more modern
structure and has facilities for handling superior to those
of the floored warehouse, which, however, has certain
advantages in regard to aeration, particularly necessary
in cases where the grain has become heated through a
prolonged voyage or otherwise. The silo installation
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