30
WAREHOUSES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
17, 1854, and ceded November 14 of the same year to La Compagnie
des Docks-Entrepôts du Havre, a company with a capital of 5,000.000
francs ($965,000). The duration of the concession is ninety-nine
years. The ground upon which the warehouses, sheds, courts, docks,
etc., are built is the property of the State, for which the company
pays a total rent of about 2,000,000 francs ($386,000) in yearly in
stallments. By the terms of the concession the company obligated
itself to construct buildings capable of receiving at least 130,000 tons
of merchandise under the most favorable conditions, covered yards
for overhauling and examining the merchandise before it was stored,
sheds for the temporary storage of cargoes after discharge from ves
sels, administrative buildings for offices for custom-house officials at
tached to the bonded warehouses and for sleeping quarters for a cer
tain number of these officials, to erect walls to isolate the entire plant,
to create means of interior communication by which merchandise could
be removed from one warehouse and transported quickly to another
or be loaded on vessels, and to install machinery and other apparatus
for loading, discharging, and weighing cargoes, all upon plans ap
proved by the Government. The conditions of the contract have been
carried out, and, owing to the growing demands of commerce, the
company has built in addition warehouses covering a surface of
117,500 square meters (140,530 square yards). The docks belonging
to the bonded warehouses and the stonework and pavement of the
quays were constructed by the Government.
As mentioned above, the term of the concession is ninety-nine years,
at the expiration of which the property of the company, with the
exception of the annexes, consisting of the buildings, the apparatus
for handling merchandise, the stone walls inclosing the plant, etc.,
reverts to the Government.
The following are the superficial areas of the original bonded ware
houses and those of the annexes :
Areas of Havre warehouses.
Buildings, etc.
Original
bonded
ware
houses.
Annexes.
Warehouses
Covered courts and storehouses.
Courts not covered
Total area.
■’%
74,152
45,448
208,320
(Is.
840
*
140,530
There are five cellars for wines and liquors, of a capacity of 6,000
tons. The north and south quays of the floating dock are each 1,821
feet long. In the pamphlet containing the rules, regulations, and
tariff of charges of the company, sent with this report, 0 (here is a
scale plan which indicates the arrangement and dimensions of the
different buildings, covered courts, quays, etc. The estimated cost of
the company’s plant is 15,000,000 francs ($2,895,000).
a On file in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor.