The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-03 00:00:00

Table XVI. affords the means of judging of the
importance of this trade, between Hamburgh and
Altona on the one side, and Norway on the other,
which during the last year employed 371 vessels of
11,674 commercial lasts (at 6,0001b5.) burden, and
also shows the great variety of the articles exported.
To give an idea of the quantities we shall only here
state, as an example, that from Hanaburgh-Altona
there was exported to Norway alone 5} millions of
lbs. of coffee. The importance of this amount will
be shown by a glance at Table XI.
As regards the value of the export trade to the
Baltic countries accurate details are wanting, partly
because in those countries—namely, in Sweden, Fin-
land, and Russia—owing to the burdensome system
of customs regulations the declarations at the custom-
house cannot be depended upon, and partly because
this trade is in a great measure carried on, not di-
rectly, but through Lubeck and Kiel. With regard
to the latter it may be stated that last year there were
forwarded from Hamburgh (exclusive of Altona) :
Marks Banco.
By the Kiel railway, goods to the
amount of .
By waggon to Lubeck

21,334,000
And in addition to this, goods to the value of
2,000,000 marks banco were transported to Lubeck
on the Stecknitz Canal. Thus the whole amount of
goods sent from Hamburgh alone to Kiel and Lubeck,
may be estimated at 23,000,000 marks banco. By
far the greater part of these goods went on to Russia,
Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.

The vessels which convey these goods from Ham-
burgh and Altona, and Lubeck ,and Kiel, to Norway
and the Baltic countries, bring back from these coun-
tries cargoes of the so-called northern products, which
are only destined in part for the consumption of Ger-
many; the rest, having exchanged owners in the
Hamburgh market, is sent by sea to Western Europe
and to the Mediterranean. _ _

This exchange of commodities with the north of
Europe, effected by means of Hamburgh and the
neighbouring German sea-ports, only forms part of
the transit trade carried on by these ports. Another
very considerable transit of goods passes by way of
Prussia, and through the hands of the merchants in
the great inland markets to Cracow and -Warsaw.
Another portion goes by way of Breslau to Brody,
and through Vienna into Hungary ; a third passes up
the Elbe to Bohemia; and a fourth through the Zoll-
verein states to Switzerland and Italy. It sometimes
even happens, that colonial produce is exported from
Hamburgh in a westerly direction by sea, to Holland,
France, Italy, and Spain, and even to places seemingly
the most unlikely, as for instance to Gibraltar, from
whence they probably find their way into Spain by secret
channels. Sugar, first refined here, it is true, goes
hence through the Mediterranean and the Black Sea
to Trebizond and Persia ; and coffee brought here
from the Brazils, is shipped hence to Smyrna.
Now the whole of this transit trade depends upon
conditions to which the system of differential duties
is directly opposed. A great market can only main-
tain its importance by means of a considerable transit
trade, as also a considerable transit trade can only be
carried on where there are great markets, where at
all times buyers and sellers of all kinds of goods are
to be found. But it requires not only an extensive
market, but also a cheap market; because, just as
the German merchant only purchases this or the
other article in England because he can get it
cheaper there than elsewhere, so will the Norwe-
gian not supply his wants in the German markets,
when he has to pay more for them there than
elsewhere. That the introduction of the differential
system would in many respects raise the prices
of the German markets, has however been proved
above. But further, the market must not only be
cheap, but it must also bear a high character as to the
qualities of the goods on sale, and above all it must be
well supplied ; in other words there must always be a
complete assortment of goods of every description, of
every quality, and at every price. Nothing can
therefore be more injurious to such a market than a
system of customs, which, hemming all liberty of
action, prescribed a hundred rules to those who supply
the market, in compliance with which they are
obliged to procure their goods from one country
instead of from another, and to import them in one
ship instead of in another. To this must be added,
that this system will probably render necessary the
establishment of complete entrepots, under the lock
and key of the Custom-house (entrepots reels), in all
the most considerable ports of Germany, which
are free ports, and which are meant to remain
such, as far as this is consistent with the new system
proposed. Such arrangements are, however, just of
the kind that would interfere the most with the mode
in which business has hitherto been transacted in
these ports, and which has essentially contributed to
maintain the market. In the Hanse Towns, at present,
the merchant can sort his goods as the market requires
it, in his own warehouse, and at very little cost. Here
the lot of coffee imported from across the ocean is
carefully examined, a sample is taken from every
bag, that which is of equal quality is put together,
and thus the large assortments of different kinds are
formed. Should any part be damaged, this part is
separated from the first, the sound goods are placed in
readiness to be disposed of wholesale, and the damaged
goods are disposed of on the spot, or in the neigh-
bourhood, for instance, to retail dealers, who then
again sort the coffee berry so as to separate the good
from the bad. The same takes place with regard to
sugar, every chest is opened, the least damaged parts
are taken away ; the chests most damaged are set
aside, each kind is sorted, the damaged sugar sold is to
the refiners on the spot, the rest is dispatched to different
places ; each kind of goods goes to the place where it
is particularly required ; the dark-coloured Brazil
coffee to the north, the paler but more purely fla-
voured kinds to Germany ; the best Havannah sugar
to Petersburgh, &c. The thorough sorting of the
goods and the consequent certainty of being able to
satisfy the purchaser, is the more necessary in Ham-
burgh, as almost all the purchasers of transatlantic
produce in this market require credit. In England
these matters are not so closely attended to. Who-
ever purchases cotton there must be satisfied with
having only one bale out of every ten of a large lot
examined, and he is in general obliged to accept and
to pay bills for the amount, and to be prepared to
find afterwards the quality of the goods very unequal.
In Hamburgh every bale is examined and sorted ac-
cording to quality ; and to these circumstances it
is in a great measure owing that the German markets
have been able to maintain their footing, in spite of
the overwhelming commercial power of England.
With the sorting of the goods in private ware-
houses is connected another circumstance, which is
also of importance, namely, the facility of dividing the
lots into larger or smaller parcels, to meet the wishes
of the purchaser ; if this dividing of the goods be
rendered more difficult the difference in the price for
the person buying 100 sacks of coffee, and for another
buying only one sack, or for the person buying one
sack, and for another only buying 101bs , would be
very considerable; whereas under the existing system
in Hamburgh, the difference is very trifling. This
working, sorting, and dividing of the large parcels of
goods can only be done easily and conveniently in
private warehouses; in the great entrepots under the
lock and key of the Custom-house authorities, it is
either not at all practicable, or it is combined with
considerable expense.
While upon the topic of the transit trade, we must
add an observation, which will serve at the same time
to complete what has been said in another place, We
there remarked that higher duties on indirect im-
portations would, in fact, only be of importance
with regard to the imports from Great Bri-
tain and the Netherlands, because the impor-
tations from other European countries were very
trifling. Notwithstanding this, it is, as we have before
remarked,elot at all improbable that in case the ad-
ditional duty should be very high, recourse may, be
had to those countries in order to evade the duty. For
instance, should the importation of sugar from Eng-
land into llamburgh be burdened with an additional
duty, whilst that from Denmark and Norway should
be exempt, it is not at all impossible that sugar might
be sent to a Danish or Norwegian port, and thence
be brought to Hamburgh. To prevent such evasion,
it will, therefore, be necessary to impose the additional
duty on the indirect importation of colonial produce
from all European ports without exception, and even
on all such goods crossing the land frontiers—a mea-
sure which has indeed been recommended by influen-
tial person. Now nothing is more probable than that,
should this take place, all the states of Europe would
likewise impose an additional duty on these goods,
when imported from German ports ; and thus the
transit trade of Hamburgh and Altona, of which we
have just given so favourable an account, would be
entirely destroyed, while that of Germany in general
would be materially injured.
The importance of the transit trade of a place is
not to be measured by its extent alone, but also, and
more especially, by its intimate connection with the
whole course of business as carried on there. The
transit trade must not be supposed to be a business
apart, the destruction of which would only affect
those particularly engaged in it, or as a branch of
commerce which may be lopped off without injuring
the stem. On the contrary, there are numerous kinds
of business connected with the transit trade, for which
tables of imports and exports furnish no criterion.
Not even the whole amount of the business in goods
is there noted. There are, for instance, large quan-
tities of corn sold on the llamburgh Exchange which
never enter the Elbe. The Englishman buys it from
the Hamburgh merchant, who buys it in St. Peters-
burgh, and thence it is shipped direct to London.
The insurance is usually effected in Hamburgh, the
payment made in Hamburgh bills. The business of
the insurance offices and the commerce with bills of
exchange, which have, as we all know, grown into
great importance (in 1845 the insurance against
risks at sea amounted to 330,000,000 marks banco),
owe their prosperity, in the first instance, to the