Trade Routes in War Time.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15138, 30 November 1914, Page 6

Trade Routes in War Time.

Needless to say, the war has brought about a complete transformation in the shipping world. An interesting article in the "Economist" indicates somo of the principal changes that have taken place. Everywhere neutral vessels arO enjoying "the time of their lives," getting wonderfully full vessels and very proStablo freights. Boats that would | normally be considered old tubs, are carrying enormously valuable cargoes from neutral countries. Leading port*, have disappeared from active service or been relegated to a secondary position, while shipping centres of minor importance have suddenly become place., of great profit and activity. In England the balance has naturally tended to shift from the East to the West, Coast, nnd both Manchester and Liverpool are relatively speaking gainers by the war. Southampton has been so much employed for transport that its commercial importance has been temporarily reduced, and Hull seems to have become more and more of a naval as opposed to a mercantile port. Still more remarkable changes, it is pointed out. have taken placo on the Continent, where tho trade routes have shifted hundreds of miles from thc normal courses of peace. Hamburg, Bremen and Antwerp, ordinarily ports of the first order, .ire closed. In some ways thc Dutch ports aro most favourably placed, bti(. still t-h'-y are suffering badly, and tho shipping firms of Rotterdam complain rather bitterly of tho contraband regulations imposed by the British Government. At the samo time tho trade between Groat Britain and Holland is remarkably active, and the war seems to havo increased the importance of London as an entrepot for this Continental trade. Much of tho trado between France and other countries, which formerly went overland, is now coming through London, which, according to our contemporary, has, in a wonderful way, established its position as the clearing-house of the Continent. With the great ports of Eastern Europe, tho Baltic, and tho Black Sea closed, or partially closed, trade tends to take a southern and a northward course, and finds its outlets northward in tho ports of Scandinavia and Archangel, southward largely in Genoa. Tho last-named is a neutral port, and convenient for Swiss shippers, who usually sond their goods to Trieste or dpwn th*. Rhino to Rotterdam. Consequently Italian shipowners have a pecuniary interest in urging on their Government, the maintenance of neutrality. If Italy wero at war and her army mobilised, tho export trade would come to an end, and its profits disappear. Tho Swiss exporter, too, would find his only outlet practically shut, and his position would bo ho bettor than that of the German shipper. The recent seizure on the Italian frontier of five carloads of copper, which had been loaded at Genoa, and intended for Krupp's works, shows, moreover, that attempts are being made by the Germans to secure goods useful in warfare through this port. Doubtless most of tho diverted trade will go back into'the old channels after tho war, but judging by past experience, it is probable that some ports have lost trade which they will never regain. This, is certainly true of the German ports. Others, again, may derive a permanent benefit from the changes brought about by the war.