DANTZIG.
Dantzig is the natural sea outlet for the produce of an area more than twice
the size of Ireland, drained by the Vistula, a river 650 miles in length, but of
which only about 160 miles are in German, the remainder being in Russian and
Austrian, territory. In former times the town actually occupied the position of
shipping port for the produce of the whole of this area, but since the development
of the Russian railway system, the greater part of the Russian produce
previously exported from Dantzig has been diverted to the ports of the
Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
As the Vistula approaches the Baltic Sea it breaks up into a number of
sluggish streams which flow through a delta of marshy land known as the
Werder, about 35 miles wide on the Baltic shore. The main river, which
reaches the sea on the western side of the delta, receives from the same side the
Mottlau, a comparatively insignificant stream, and on this tributary, close to its
junction with the Vistula, stands Dantzig, since 1878 the capital of the province
of West Prussia.
Until recent years Dantzig was somewhat off the main system of the
Prussian State railways, a disadvantage which has now in some measure been
remedied by the construction of two lines, one to Dirschau, 18 miles to the
south-east, by which the port has been connected with the direct route between
Berlin and St. Petersburg, and the other to Stettin, which links Dantzig with
the rising towns of the north-west coast, and with the manufacturing centres of
the Rhineland.
The forwarding trade of Dantzig depends largely for its profit upon the
Vistula as one of the cheapest means of transport. For this reason the
regulation of the stream, from the point at which it enters Prussian territory,
receives the most careful attention. Complaints have, however, arisen long since
as to the condition of those parts of the river which flow through Russian and
Austrian territory, where navigation is said to be rendered more difficult every
year by the sandbanks which are allowed to form in the channel. As far back
as in 1875 the Dantzig merchants endeavoured to get the governments of
Germany, Russia and Austria to join in a mutual scheme of regulation ; but the
effort was unsuccessful. These facts, combined with the lowness of water in
the summer months, and the enforced idleness caused by frosts in winter, are
resulting in much of the goods which were formerly transported by river being
taken by the railway. Nevertheless, the traffic by the Vistula is still very
considerable, the chief commodities forwarded downstream (apart from large
quantities of timber floated down in rafts) being sugar and syrup, building
materials, mill products and corn ; while in the other direction coal, stone and
stonewares, sugar, metals and metalwork, salt and petroleum are the most
important articles conveyed.
The import trade of the town is concerned chiefly with articles of daily
consumption, among which herrings and coal from the United Kingdom, and
petroleum from the United States are the most important. British coal has a
serious competitor in the product of the Silesian mines, of which large
quantities are brought to Dantzig by rail and river.
The importation of iron ore from Sweden for the use of the Upper Silesian
works was begun in 1892 with 2,000 tons. By 1904 this figure had increased
to 118,911 tons, and in 1905 the total imported and forwarded up-country was
183,148 tons.
The staple exports of Dantzig are agricultural produce and timber. Among
the former, corn occupies a prominent position, though its importance is
declining in favour of other produce, more especially beet for the manufacture of
sugar. The total exports of sugar from the port in 1905 amounted to 156,400
tons, of which 62,853 tons went to the United Kingdom. The portion of the
trade of Dantzig which has varied least for the last 500 years is that of timber.
Large rafts of pine, fir and oak trunks still come down the Vistula, though here
