great revival of her commerce which increased steadily with every decade till in the year before the war its tonnage actually surpassed that of the largest ports of the world.

ANTWERP'S PORT AND GROWING COMMERCE

Located at the head of deep water navigation on the deep Scheldt, Antwerp's geographical position is as we have seen unusually favorable for the growth of a large international trade. The river at this point is sufficiently large so that with the aid of modern improvements it can afford excellent harbor and docking facilities to the largest vessels. The city and port authorities spared no effort in affording the most up-todate means of docking, loading and unloading. They acted with implicit faith in the theory that harbor development on modern lines is immediately followed by increased shipping and that new trade and merchandize is sure to be attracted by shipping opportunities.

The Chicago Harbor Commission after returning from Europe in 1908 said in its report:

"The total wharfage of Antwerp is: Of riverside quays, 31⁄2 miles, which can accommodate about 40 vessels at a time; and of docks, II miles, accommodating a very large number of boats of all sizes, from the canal barges and Rhine boats to the largest ocean vessels.

"There are on the average about 250 ocean-going vessels in port at a time, and several hundred smaller boats. Nowhere else among the score of great ports visited, save at Hamburg, was there evident so much activity in shipping.

"There is most excellent service in sheds and cranes. The sheds are about 360 X 195 feet, and sheds and tracks are so arranged that each shed with its trackage is a unit. The area of floor space in sheds is over 75 acres. Almost all of the sheds are of the one-story type. As a rule they stand well back from the edge of the quay with from one to three railway tracks in front, making it convenient to handle the freight from the rail to the ship direct. The sheds are made of steel with flat tar and gravel roofs, and walls of corrugated steel, which in the latest construction make use of an American invention, rolling up out of the way like a roll-top desk. The sheds along the city front have the roof made into a broad promenade overlooking the river and the shipping, a very pleasant feature, and one much appreciated by the people. The floors of all sheds

are of Belgian block, and the drays drive everywhere through them as required.

"In the newer installation the three railway tracks and the front of the shed are served by the finest cranes yet devised. These cranes have a single rail of track on the edge of the quay, and rise high above the cars on the three railway tracks and reach across them to the roof of the shed where the other track rail is placed. The railway tracks are so placed and arranged that service at front, middle and rear of the shed can be given without interference with trackage of any other shed. Out-freight accumulates in the shed on the quay side of the middle track, in-freight on the far side from the quay. The handling of freight is most expeditiously done; the service is very efficient.

"In warehouses the city is again far ahead of most other ports. The city owns six great buildings of absolutely fireproofs construction. Across the street from the main quay and sheds on the river front, four of these buildings stand in an impressive row. They are four stories high, of ferro-concrete, faced with cream-colored repressed brick, and have much architectural merit. They are separated from each other by stone-paved courts of generous width for fire protection. They are really beautiful buildings, and they offer as clean and neat an exterior as a series of art galleries. Railway tracks run on the ground level along the mid-line of the series, to serve them all. Freight elevators serve all floors; the rooms are separated from each other by concrete walls and entrance to any room is by the elevator or by a concrete balcony on the outside of the building. Nowhere else is there such absolute security provided for goods in storage. These warehouses are rented by the month, the rental varying from two cents per square foot on the ground floor to four mills per square foot on the top floor."

But magnificent as these arrangements were in 1908 when the Commission made its visit to north European ports, they have since been very much improved in connection with the new Harbor Extension projects.

Writing to his government in 1906 of the extensive improvements in harbor and shipping facilities at Antwerp, Sir Cecil Hertslet, the able British Consul at Antwerp said: "When the whole scheme is carried out the superficial area of the port of Antwerp will be quadrupled, and the port will be larger than any other now in existence.

Equally solicitous and intelligent has been the care of the government and the local authorities in the matter of affording facilities for the transport of goods to and from the interior. There are more railways to the square mile in Belgium than in

any other part of the continent. With an area of only 11,372 square miles it had in 1910, 1268 miles of double track and 1410 miles of single track railways. Besides the trunk lines, there are very many little branch roads. Every section, every town, indeed almost every village is directly reached by the railroads. The same is true of the canals and water communications. Before the War there were about 1500 kilometres of canals and streams used for transport service. All are carefully articulated with the waterways of the French and German hinterland on the one hand, and definitely focused on Belgium's great seaport on the other. As with the railroads, so with the canals practically every village is reached. Boats of from 200 to 300 tons penetrate to the remotest corners of the little kingdom carrying goods direct from Antwerp without transshipment. All artificial obstacles intervening are thus removed. Water transport is very much used in Belgium; a little more than two thirds of the trade from the interior of Belgium comes by

water.

The great industrial and mining region of northern and eastern France, so ruthlessly ravished by the Germans, represents, as is well known, nearly 90 per cent. of French iron, over 50 per cent. of French coal, and for this reason also, more than 75 per cent. of her industrial output. Antwerp is a natural port for the overseas commerce of this French region even more so than for the Rhine. That French commerce at Antwerp has lagged behind is due to political and artificial, rather than to natural causes.

Supported by so rich a tributary territory the commerce of Antwerp and of Belgium has developed beyond all proportion to the size of the little state. In 1910 it was a rival for fifth place among the nations of the world, with a foreign trade of nearly 2500 million dollars in value. In the past this phenomenal trade depended largely on the needs of Belgium's industrious and thrifty millions, but an increasing commerce in recent years with the more distant French and German hinterland reveals the possibilities of much larger expansion in the future.

The tonnage entering the port from 1850 to the year before the War shows a growth from 200,000 to over 14,000,000 tons. The steps in this development appear in the following table:

Tonnage entered at Antwerp, 1850–1913 (1)

"From fifth rank in 1870 the port (Antwerp) has risen to second in all the world in 1906, with 19,662,000 net register tons entered and cleared; and in the last decade her rate of increase has been most rapid of all." (Chicago Harbor Commission Report, p.116.)

It should be noted, however, that in making comparison of Belgian tonnage statistics with those of other countries that the former are somewhat inflated and a deduction of about 15 per cent. should be made on Belgian official returns. This is due to the fact that space usually not counted for cargoes or passengers is included in the Belgian report on the net tonnage of all vessels. Furthermore, Antwerp, as is well known, is a port of call rather than a home port for a very large proportion of her shipping. Vessels come to the city, but they take on or unload only a portion of their cargoes. The tonnage statistics therefore correctly show the movements of the ships but not of the merchandise. Thus in 1909 the ship tonnage that entered the port was 11,907,689 as against the actual merchandise unloaded of 7,380,000, tons.

The following table of actual and percentage increase of net tonnage entering leading European ports for the periods from 1870 to 1900, and from 1900 to 1912, affords striking evidence on the growing importance of Antwerp's commerce before the war:

The figures speak for themselves. With Rotterdam, Antwerp leads
by a wide margin in percentage of increase for the earlier period. For the
second period Antwerp is the only port whose increase is more than 100
per cent.

ANTWERP COVETED BY GERMANS

We have seen how trade rivalry and international jealousies
seriously interfered with the development of Antwerp. In-
deed, the more intensely the nationalism of its neighbors devel-
oped, the more Antwerp became the object of their jealousy
and cupidity. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Ant-
werp became the first sea port of the world. But in those
days the powerful nationalistic state was in its infancy. As
Dutch nationalism developed it joined with other forces to
crush and shackle the freedom of the city on the Scheldt.
Then with the great outburst of democracy and nationalism of
the Revolution, the possibilities of the Flemish port made it the
coveted object of French ambitions. France seized it and was
its master for two decades. That Antwerp did not progress
by leaps and bounds as a part of Napoleon's Empire was due
to English control of the sea and her careful blockade.

Early to recognize the importance of Antwerp, England