But while it is true that Germany's internal trade is her most
important trade, it is also true that her FOREIGN TRADE has during the
last half century made more progress than that of any other European
country, and during the last three or four decades more progress than
even that of the United States. Since 1840 it has increased six and
two third times, while that of Great Britain has increased six times,
and France only four and one fifth times. It is now second in the
world, being more than half of that of Great Britain, ahead of that of
the United States,[1] and very considerably ahead of that of France,
while in 1860 it was much less than half of that of Great Britain,
less than that of the United States, and considerably less than that
of France. Germany, however, is not well favoured with respect to
seaports, for in its transmarine trade it is largely dependent on
foreign seaports--namely, ports in Belgium, Holland, France, Italy,
and Austria. Rotterdam in Holland and Antwerp in Belgium are much more
favourably situated with respect to the commerce of its chief mining
and manufacturing regions than any of its own ports. There are only
two German seaports with water of depth sufficient to accommodate the
deep-drawing vessels in which foreign commerce is now mainly carried
on--namely, CUXHAVEN, the outport of Hamburg, sixty-five miles from
Hamburg, and BREMERHAVEN, the outport of Bremen, thirty-five miles
from Bremen, though recent improvements in the navigation of the Elbe
allow vessels of even twenty-six feet draught to ascend the Elbe
wholly to Hamburg. But HAMBURG (625,000), for the reason that for
centuries it was a free port of entry, has built up a very large
foreign trade, being the fifth in the world in this respect, London,
New York, Liverpool, and Rotterdam, alone being ahead of it. Hamburg's
foreign trade is almost one half greater than the whole foreign trade
of all other German ports put together, while the foreign trade of
Bremen is about one fourth that of Hamburg. BREMEN, like Hamburg, was
for centuries a free port of entry, but in 1888 both Hamburg and
Bremen gave up in great part their free port privileges and entered
the general customs union of the empire. Both cities were extremely
loath to give up their ancient unique commercial privileges, for they
feared an immense loss of trade in doing so, but it was hoped that
what they lost in foreign commerce would be made up to them in
increased commerce with other parts of the empire. One reason for the
great development of Germany's foreign trade in late years is found in
the facilities that it possesses for rapid transit to and from Italy
by means of tunnels through the Alps.
[Illustration: North central Germany, showing the ship canal and the
leading commercial arteries.]