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. 
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®# % * (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.