38 
FOREIGN TRADE ZONES 
with pre-war conditions there has been a decrease of about one-third, 
due to the economic collapse of Russia, the lowered purchasing 
capacity of the States of the Baltic rand and the other causes stated 
hereinafter. a 
Much of the transit trade consists of general cargo and includes & 
variety of articles of merchandise of foreign manufacture or produc- 
tion. The statistics for 1926 show that about one-half of the esti- 
mated tonnage of the transit trade was made up of the following 
articles of non-Danish production in the approximate amounts 
stated : 
Tons 
29, 000 
8, 000 
5, 500 
4, 500 
3, 000 
The foregoing statement disregards the coal and fuel oil credited 
to free-port exports, as the statistics of these items undoubtedly 
include and probably consist wholly of fuel supplies of vessels which 
have bunkered in the free port during the year. 
Manufacturing in free zone.—Although under the charter of the 
corporation all kinds of manufacturing may be carried on in the free 
port subject to permission previously obtained from the Secretary 
of the Interior, except in respect to those particularly prohibited 
under article 19 as referred to above, no activities to this kind have 
yet been established. 
Shipbuilding and ship repair in free zone.—There are no facilities of 
this kind in the free port but excellent facilities are offered in ship- 
yards in the vicinity, particularly in the establishment of Burmeister 
and Wain, the largest of its kind in Denmark, located immediately 
across the main harbor channel, about three-quarters of a mile 
distant. 
Influence of free port on the development of foreign trade.—Undoubt- 
edly Danish merchants have profited to a certain extent from the 
transshipment of foreign goods to the Baltic States, particularly 
those on the south, but this trade has not developed in accordance 
with expectations entertained during and immediately following the 
war. In the first place, the easy accessibility to Baltic ports of small 
vessels carrying full cargoes from the ports of Northern Europe and 
the rail facilities offered from Central Europe, leave no occasion for 
the use of larger vessels which would break cargo at Copenhagen. 
The nearness of the free port of Hamburg, which has easy access to 
the Baltic through the Kiel Canal, the recent establishment of a free 
port at Malmo, Sweden, just across the sound from Copenhagen, 
rail connection between Sweden and Central Europe by steam ferry