GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CARR LINE
The new shipping line for which Morris and Co. contracted to act as
General Passenger Agents was the privately owned firm of Mr. Edward
Carr. The agreement concluded between the two firms shows distinct
traces of Ballin's enterprising spirit and of the largeness of his
outlook. Morris and Co. undertook to book for the two steamships of the
Carr Line then building, viz. the _Australia_ and the _America_, as many
passengers as they could carry, and guaranteed to pay the owners a
passage price of 82 marks per head, all the necessary expenses and
commissions, including those connected with the dispatch of the
passengers, to be paid by Morris and Co. The steerage rate charged by
the Packetfahrt at that time was 120 marks. It was agreed that, if this
rate should be increased, a corresponding increase should be made in the
rates of the Carr Line. The number of trips to be performed by each
steamer should be about eight or nine per annum. If a third boat were
added to the service, the agreement entered into should be extended so
as to cover this boat as well. For every passenger short of the total
capacity of each steamer Morris and Co. were to pay a compensation of 20
marks, if no arrangements had been made for the accommodation of the
passenger, and 35 marks in case such accommodation had been arranged. It
was expected that each boat would carry from 650 to 700 passengers. The
actual number carried, however, turned out to be slightly less, and
amounted to 581 when the first steamer left Hamburg on June 7th, 1881.
Morris and Co. also undertook to hand over to the Carr Line all the
through cargo they could secure. From the very start the work done by
Ballin seems to have met with the unqualified approval of the Carr Line
people; because the latter waived their claim to the compensation due to
them for the sixty passengers short of the total number which were to be
carried on the first trip, as Morris and Co. could prove that these
passengers had failed to arrive, although the firm had been advised from
Denmark that they were to come. On how small a scale the firm's business
was conducted may be gauged from the circumstance that the whole staff
consisted of nine employees only, who were paid salaries aggregating
20,302 marks.
In one essential feature the service of the new line differed from those
of its old-established competitors. The _Australia_ and the _America_
were ordinary cargo boats, but, in addition to a moderate amount of
cargo, they also carried steerage passengers. They thus had not much in
common with the usual passenger steamers by which both cabin and
steerage passengers were carried. The advantage of the new type to the
emigrants was that it gave them much more space than was at their
disposal on the older boats. Whereas on the cabin steamers they were
practically confined to a very small part of the boat, the Carr Line
steamers made no restriction whatever as to their movements on board;
all the available space, especially on deck, was thrown open to them.
This type was not entirely a novelty, the sailing vessels of the older
period used for the emigrant traffic being run on similar lines. The
advantages accruing to the owners from their new type of steamers were
obvious. The arrangements for the accommodation and provisioning of the
emigrants, compared with what was needed in the case of cabin
passengers, were of the simplest kind, and thus the cost price of the
steamers was considerably less than that of vessels of the usual type.
This also meant a saving in the wages bill, as it led to a reduction in
the number of hands on board; and since the speed of the new boats was
also less than that of the older ones, the working expenses were reduced
in proportion. The financial results of the service, therefore, were
better, in spite of the low rates charged to the steeragers, than those
obtainable by running cabin steamers with steerage accommodation, and
than those obtainable by running cargo steamers without any passenger
accommodation.
The new line soon made itself felt as a serious competitor to the
Packetfahrt, especially so as by 1885 its fleet had increased from two
to five steamers. The lower steerage rates charged by the Carr Line led
to a general decrease of rates in the New York service, which was not
confined to the lines running their services from Hamburg. The passage
prices charged from the various ports are naturally closely related to
each other, because each port tries to attract as much traffic as
possible to itself, and this can only be brought about by a carefully
thought-out differentiation. The struggle between the various lines
involved which had started in Hamburg quickly extended to other seaports
and affected a great many lines in addition to those of Hamburg. The
rate-cutting process began in May, 1882. In the following October the
Packetfahrt and the Lloyd had reduced their rates to 90 and in June,
1883, to 80 marks, whilst the British lines in February, 1884, charged
so little as 30s. The Carr Line, of course, had to follow suit. It not
only did so, but in proportion reduced its own rates even more than the
other lines. The rates were even lower in practice than they appeared to
be, owing to the constantly growing commissions payable to the agents.
The agents of the competing lines, by publishing controversial articles
in the newspapers, soon took the general public into their confidence;
and in order to prevent such publicity being given as to their internal
affairs, the managements of the various steamship lines entered into
some sort of mutual contact. The worst result of the rate-slashing was
that the agreements which the older lines had concluded amongst
themselves for the maintenance of remunerative prices soon became
unworkable. First those relating to the Westbound rates had to go down
before the new competitor; and in 1883, when this competition had really
commenced to make itself appreciably felt, the Packetfahrt found itself
compelled to declare its withdrawal from the New York Continental
Conference by which the Eastbound rate had been fixed at $30 for the
passage from New York to the Continent, a rate which was so high that
the Carr Line found it easy to go below it.
The Packetfahrt made great efforts to hold its own against the newcomer,
but, as the following figures show, its success was but slight. In 1883
the Packetfahrt carried 55,390 passengers on 76 voyages, against 16,471
passengers carried on 29 voyages by the Carr Line, so that the traffic
secured by the latter amounted to about 30 per cent. of that of the
former. The figures for 1884 show that 58,388 passengers were carried by
the Packetfahrt on 86 voyages, against 13,466 steeragers on 30 voyages
by the Carr Line. If the figures relative to the direct and the indirect
emigrant traffic from Hamburg are studied, it will be seen that a
considerable decrease had taken place in the volume of the latter kind
within a very few years, thus leading to an improvement in the position
of the German lines as compared with that of their British competitors.
These figures are as follows:
_Number of Emigrants carried_
_Packetfahrt_ _Carr Line_ _via British ports_
1880 47,000 -- 20,000
1881 68,000 4,000 47,600
1882 68,000 11,000 31,000
1883 55,000 16,000 13,000
1884 58,000 13,000 16,000
At the same time the Packetfahrt, in order to prevent French competition
from becoming too dangerous on the Havre-New York route, had to reduce
its rates from Havre, and a little later it had to do likewise with
regard to the Eastbound freight rates and the steerage rates. The keen
competition going on between the lines concerned had led to a lowering
of the Eastbound rate to Hamburg from $30 to $18; and as the commission
payable to the agents had gone up to $5, the net rate amounted to $13
only. At last the shareholders of the Packetfahrt became restless, and
at the annual general meeting held in 1884 one of their representatives
moved that the Board of the Company should be asked to enter into an
agreement with the competing firm of Edward Carr. The motion, however,
was lost; and the further proposal that a pool should be established
among the Hamburg emigrant agents fared no better.
It was clear that the rate-war, which continued for a long period, would
considerably affect the prosperity of the Carr Line in common with the
other shipping companies. This circumstance prompted the proposal of
Edward Carr, when the discussions were renewed in the spring of 1885, to
carry them on upon a different basis altogether. He proposed, in fact,
that the Carr Line itself should be purchased by the Packetfahrt. In the
course of the ensuing negotiations Albert Ballin, as the representative
of Edward Carr, who was absent from Hamburg for a time, played a
prominent part. The Packetfahrt, in the meantime, had received advices
from its New York office to the effect that the latter had reconsidered
its attitude towards the claims of the Carr Line, that it looked upon a
successful termination of the struggle against this Line as hopeless,
and that it therefore recommended the granting of the differential rates
which formed the obstacle to peace. Nevertheless, it was not until July,
1885, that, at a conference held in Hamburg, an agreement was concluded
by the Packetfahrt, the Lloyd, the Carr Line, the Dutch, Belgian, and
French lines, and the representative of the British lines. All these
companies bound themselves to raise their rates to 100 marks, except
that the Carr Line should be entitled to fix theirs at 90 marks. Thus
the latter had at length received the recognition of its claim to a
differentiation, and of its right to exist side by side with the older
Company, although its steamers were not of an equal quality with those
of the latter. An agreement was also concluded by which the rates of
commission due to the Hamburg emigrant agents were fixed, and at the
continued negotiations with the other lines Albert Ballin, from that
time onward, in his capacity of representative of the Carr Line, was
looked upon as on an equal footing with the representatives of the other
lines.
The principal subject of the discussions was the question of
eliminating, as far as possible, British influence from the emigrant
traffic _via_ Hamburg. The competition of the British was, naturally,
very detrimental to the business of all the Continental, but more
especially the German lines, because the interests of the respective
sides were utterly at variance with each other. The firm foundations of
the business transacted by the British lines were laid in England, and
the Continental business was merely a source of additional profit; but
to the German lines it was the mainstay of their existence, and to make
it pay was of vital importance to them. The German lines, therefore,
did not rest until, as the result of the continued negotiations among
the Continental companies, it was agreed that the uniform rates just
fixed should not apply to the traffic which was carried on by the two
Hamburg lines from that city. Towards the end of 1885 the first object
aimed at by this step was realized: the conclusion of an agreement
between the two Hamburg lines and the representatives of the British
lines settling the rates and the commissions; but apart from this, no
changes of fundamental importance were made in this business until after
Albert Ballin, under an agreement proposed by the Packetfahrt, had
entered the service of the Packetfahrt, as head of their passenger
department. An important exception, however, was the amalgamation
suddenly announced in March, 1886, of the Carr Line and the Union Line,
which latter company was operated by Rob. M. Sloman and Co., of Hamburg.
The fact of this amalgamation considerably weakened the position of the
Packetfahrt in its dealings with the Carr Line, because it gave
additional strength to the latter.
The details of the five years' agreement between Ballin and the
Packetfahrt were approved by the Board of Trustees of that Company about
the middle of May, 1886. It was stipulated that, in conformity with the
pool agreement concluded between the two lines on May 22nd, the
Packetfahrt should appoint Mr. Albert Ballin sole and responsible head
of its North American passenger department (Westbound as well as
Eastbound services); that his work should include the booking of
steeragers for the Union Company's steamers (which, in accordance with
the pool agreement, the Packetfahrt had taken over), that he should
appoint and dismiss the clerks employed by his department; that he
should fix their salaries and commissions; that he should sign passage
agreements on behalf of the Company, and that he should issue the
necessary instructions to the agents and officers of the Company. All
letters and other documents were to be signed "by proxy of the
Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft," and he was
required annually to submit to the directors a draft estimate of the
expenses of his department. On how modest a scale the whole arrangement
was drawn up may be inferred from the figures given in the first year's
draft estimate, viz. Salaries, 35,000 marks; advertisements, 50,000
marks; posters and printed matter, 25,000 marks; travelling expenses,
6,000 marks; postage and telegrams, 10,000 marks; extras and sundries,
10,000 marks. Equally modest was the remuneration of the new head who
was to receive a fixed salary of 10,000 marks per annum, plus a
commission under the pool agreement, allowing the inference that the
total annual income of the newly appointed head of the department would
work out at something like 60,000 marks, which goes to show that the
Company had a high opinion of his capacity for attracting traffic to its
services. The conclusion of this agreement meant that the Packetfahrt
henceforth took entire control of its passenger business--which, until
then, had been looked after by the firm of Aug. Bolten--and that a
passenger department had to be specially created. Thus an important step
forward was made which could only be undertaken by the firm because such
a well-qualified man as Ballin happened to be at their service just
then.
If the course of the negotiations between the Packetfahrt and the Carr
Line had not already shown it, this agreement would prove without a
shadow of doubt that the then head of Morris and Co. had, at the age of
twenty-nine, and after twelve years of practical work, gained the
premier position in the emigrant business of his native city and also a
leading one in the general European emigrant business which in itself is
one of the most important branches of the shipping trade. The
correspondence between Edward Carr and Ballin furnishes no indication
that the latter himself had insisted upon his being taken over by the
Packetfahrt or that he had worked with this object.