hides and skins, tin, etc., increases annually. Its position as a transit port for a large part of the Continent, of which it is one of the great gates, indicates its true importance and the character of the merchandise warehoused here. Hence the important part played by the Communal Entrepôt dock and the other warehouses, of which the Blaauw hoedenveem may be taken as the most-developed type. Certain other warehouses restrict their business to one article; the Purperhoeden veem, for example, stores tobacco only.

Much of the information contained in this report was furnished by the Blaauwhoedenveem, and applies particularly to that company. The services performed include clearing, receiving, warehousing, handling, delivering, and forwarding merchandise, and charging and discharging steamers.

The scale of charges and an account of receipts and expenditures for handling merchandise can not be given.

All kinds of merchandise are stored, but principally coffee, tobacco, flour, cocoa, and colonial produce. Goods can remain in bond for an unlimited time; only when they are entered for consumption must the import duty be paid. Goods in transit are not liable to duty. Americans do not make use of the warehouses directly, although American imported goods are stored in large quantities. All nationalities are treated exactly in the same way by the administrators of the warehouse.

When steamers can not come alongside the warehouses for discharging or loading, goods as a rule must be carried by lighter from the ship to the warehouses. Costs are charged per weight or per package, depending on the nature of the goods.

The bonded warehouses are divided into public, private, and fictive ones. The public warehouses belong to the city and are superintended by customs officials. These warehouses, serving for storage of all kinds of dutiable goods, are sealed by both the administration of the warehouses and the trade. A private warehouse is indicated by the merchants and approved by customs officials, and also sealed by both parties. The owner of a private bonded warehouse is responsible for the goods stored in it, as to number of packages, weight, and contents. Fictive bonded warehouses may be used only for goods on which the duties are low and charged on the weight. These are private warehouses of the merchants under their own surveillance, not sealed by the customs officials. The merchants are responsible for the number of packages and the weight. The public and private bonded warehouses, under surveillance of the custom-house officers, are open for the public on all work days at the time stipulated by the officers. The presence of the custom-house-officers must be paid for at the rate of 20 cents Dutch (8 cents United States) per hour, payable to the government.

The rates per 100 kilos (220.46 pounds) charged by the Vriesseveem of Amsterdam on the principal staple articles are as follows for receiving from on board ship, transportation to warehouse, warehousing, and insurance for one month, delivery, and transportation to railway or steamer (but particular manipulations not included): Coffee, 19 cents; sugar, 8 cents; tin, 13 cents; cotton, 193 cents; spices, 353 cents; indigo, 34 cents; tobacco, 26 cents; gum damar and gum copal, 20 cents; kapok, 37 cents; hides, 30 cents; cocoa beans, 21 cents; cinchona bark, 30 cents.

10

THE BLAAUWHOEDENVEEM.

The following information about the Naamlooze Vennootschap Blaauw hoedenveem is taken from one of its trade circulars and from other publications issued by it:a

The company, which was established in 1616, acts as forwarding agents, sworn city weighers, lightermen, wharfingers, and stevedores. It has a capital of 2,710,000 florins ($1,089.420), and does business in Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. Besides conducting a storage warehouse, the company insures goods stored and issues warants on which advances may be obtained.

At Amsterdam there are two capital warehouses situated on the principal quay (de Handelkade). These establishments are divided into five separate premises, called by the names of the continents, Europa, Azië, Afrika, Amerika, Australië; they contain 323,000 square feet of floor space, and are equipped with all modern facilities, such as hydraulic cranes, lifts, etc., and electric lights. The company's piers are connected directly with the Dutch railroads. At Rotterdam are three spacious warehouses. One is situated on the Wilhelminakade and comprises three separate premises, called Scheepvaart (navigation), Handel (commerce), and Nyverheid (industry); these are also provided with electric elevators and lighted by electricity, and contain 56,000 square feet of floor space. Beneath the buildings are three fire and water proof cellars capable of containing 6,000 barrels each. The second building is called Santos, and stands between the Rhine and Maas harbors, and is specially constructed for handling and storing coffee, with cool cellars for margarine, oil, wines, etc. The third building is called Nederlands Indie, is located in the center of the town, next to the company's coffee-shelling works, and is used for local goods. The company also has a bonded warehouse called the WestelykHandelsterrein, which is composed of 36 buildings half underground; these provide accommodations for storing fruit at low temperatures the year round.

The following is from a publication received at this office from the Naamlooze Vennootschap Blaauwhoeden veem:

The history of this company dates back to the early days of the seventeenth century; but judging from the monopoly it possessed even then in connection with the weighing of goods at the public scales it may safely be accepted that Blaauw hoedenveem existed years before the time from which its records date. For a couple of centuries no alteration worth mentioning took place in the general aspect of the undertaking, and until the middle of the nineteenth century it existed on a comparatively small scale. In 1857, however, Blaauw hoedenveem introduced the system of warrants, depositing the necessary security with the States Bank, and this important movement resulted in a rapid development of the corporation, which still further increased when, two years later, in 1859, it was intrusted by one of the biggest Dutch trading companies, De Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy, with the storing and manipulation of the East Indian coffees for the Dutch Government.

The prosperity of the corporation steadily grew until increasing trade brought about its reconstruction as a joint stock company, with a capital of 750,000 florins, under the name of Naamlooze Vennootschap Blaauw hoedenveem. This was in 1886. Before the nineteenth century drew to a close still more expansions were witnessed. Scarcely five years after the formation of the joint stock company, Blaauwhoeden veem acquired the control over the Handelskade Company (Limited), of Amsterdam, owners of a big modern warehouse at the Handelskade. The success secured with this new type of warehouse soon induced the company to construct another warehouse exactly similar to the first. It was completed in 1893. These splendid buildings, with large rooms for the sorting and sampling of all kinds of merchandise, enable Blaauw hoedenveem to offer its clients all facilities they may require.

a Illustrations of various buildings of this and other warehouse companies at Amsterdam, with diagrams of the port and financial reports of the corporations, are on file in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor, where they may be consulted by persons interested.

At present the company own several warehouses of the most modern type and provided with all facilities for the necessary dealing with coffee, gum, tobacco, honey, and indigo. The famous Banda nutmegs are warehoused and manipulated by Blaauw hoedenveem at Amsterdam, this city being still the world's emporium for these spices. It is of course needless to add that the company's capital has gradually been increased and that its warehouses are at present provided with all modern machinery and railway accommodation. Furthermore, the depth of water alongside the quays is such as to permit ocean steamers of any kind to moor directly in front of the warehouses.

COMMUNAL WAREHOUSES.

Four kinds of dock magazines are distinguished in the Netherlands: Free public entrepôts owned by the State or the municipality, private free entrepôts, fictive entrepôts, and particular entrepôts. They do not differ much, however, as to the regulations. The first two are under continuous observation by the custom-house authorities. Both dutiable and free merchandise may be stored in them, but articles like sugar, wines, spirits, etc., which are subject to duties on a higher scale, can only be received in the second class. In the third and fourth classes the control by the customs officials is occasional; the stores of the third class, including the municipal petroleum stores and tobacco warehouses, are generally confined to one article. Storehouses of the fourth class accept all kinds of goods against negotiable documents. The respective companies, which are known as "veems," charge themselves with storage and transport.

These magazines are all buildings of five or six stories. On the water side room is left in front for a crane path and for a platform 2.50 meters (8.2 feet) in width at the level of the first floor. Two tracks are not, as a rule, required in front at Amsterdam, because much of the merchandise arrives and leaves by boat, while at the back at least three tracks and a roadway 8 meters (26.2 feet) in width are necessary. There are four tracks at some warehouses. In the new communal warehouses the iron skeleton of the building in embedded in about an inch of cement, and the long warehouses are divided by fireproof walls in bulkhead fashion, without any doors, in order to reduce the dangers from fire. The lifts and stairways are outside the real house walls and connect the balconies. The width of the buildings is 30 meters (98.4 feet). Larger buildings would be too dark. The warehouses are, like the sheds, illuminated by electric incandescent lamps. Each floor of the building can support a load of 2 tons per square meter (103 square feet). At the back of these warehouses are, first, the tracks and roadway we have spoken of, then a public street and cattle market and slaughterhouses. These latter buildings have their fronts on the quay of the new canal (Nieuwe Vaart).

The new communal entrepôt was opened on January 1, 1900, and the old entrepôt closed for general commercial purposes on December 31 of the same year. The transfer of the merchandise from the old to the new entrepôt having for the most part been made when operations were begun in the new, on November 1, 1900, an area of 30,000 square meters (35,880 square yards) was let, while about 23,000 meters (27,500 square yards) remained under the administration of the wardens.

The following, from the report of the chamber of commerce for 1902, shows the present situation:

As mentioned in our last report, the town council resolved on September 19, 1900, to build some additional vaults and ground rooms at the communal entrepôt. These were completed in the first half of December.

As the winter season is not suitable to the transport of wine, the operation of already contracted leases was postponed until May 1. Some new ground rooms, destined for wine and arrack, were used during the winter for the storage of sugar.

In December a resolution was passed for the building of a new warehouse, to be let to the wardens of the tea establishment for the storage of tea, with ground rooms destined for spirits. The bearing capacity of the floors of this warehouse is projected at 1,000 kilograms (2,204.6 pounds) per square meter (10.76 square feet). (In the entrepôt dock they have a capacity of 2,000 kilograms per square meter.) Spaces for the erection of goods sheds were let to the Holland Iron Railway Company and the company for the administration of State railways. A new shed was placed behind the eastern iron shed for the storage of molasses. The town council resolved to build near the entrance to the entrepôt a police station and a dining and waiting room, and also a coffeehouse, to be operated by the company. So much regarding the extension of the entrepôt buildings.

Of sundry improvements introduced in the course of last year we notice the following: To meet complaints about leakage from sugar a first floor was covered with asphalt. The boom closing the access by water was improved by making it slide lengthwise. The necessary mooring buoys and stopping posts were placed. It was resolved to apply a lining of iron cement to the walls of the room let to the Government in order to cut off the smell of the methyl alcohol stored there. Sundry necessary items were supplied-some boxes for custom-house men, protection for electric wires, repeated digging out of water pipes to repair breaks caused by the sinking of the soil, renewals of pavement, etc.

The "Blaauw hoeden veem " (a warehousing company) obtained permission for placing an automatic weighing machine to serve in packing tea.

The rent received amounted to 103,579 florins ($41,639) and the storage and wages under wardens to 80,856 florins ($32,504).

FRANK D. HILL, Consul.

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, July 22, 1904.

PORTUGAL.

LISBON.

(From United States Vice and Deputy Consul Kinchant, Lisbon, Portugal.)

The dimensions of the principal warehouse at Lisbon are 75 meters by 26 meters (246 by 85 feet). The original cost can not be given. The warehouses are conducted under a concession from the Government by Messrs. Hersent & Co., whose official address is New Harbor Works, 10 Travessa do Corpo Santo, Lisbon. The services rendered include loading and unloading of steamers or sailing vessels either anchored in river or berthed at quayside; storage of merchandise generally; removal of merchandise by rail, along quays, communicating with main lines for distribution to all parts of the country; receiving merchandise for export, and, in short, acting for importers and exporters as required.

The rates charged for the various services performed at the harbor

works are shown in the inclosed booklet." The following table shows the storage charges for goods stowed in sheds or warehouses:

Information as to the receipts and expenditures on account of service is not furnished by the harbor-works board.

Merchandise of all kinds is stored pending dispatch to destination, especially colonial products and coal. There is no fixed time for goods to remain in bond. No reliable data can be furnished as to the extent Americans make use of these warehouses. All nationalities are treated exactly alike.

The cost of removal of goods from boat to warehouse and vice versa, in the case of vessels anchored in the river, depends upon distance of anchorage from quays, but if they come alongside a saving of 40 per cent can be effected in the matter of lighterage. The booklet above referred to gives details of quay sides and depth of water. The warehouses where the goods are stored are under the care of Messrs. Hersent & Co. The bonded warehouses are under the care of the customs officials.

LISBON, PORTUGAL, August 13, 1904.

R. H. KINCHANT, Vice and Deputy Consul.

AZORES.

(From United States Consul Pickerill, St. Michaels, Azores.)

As this is not a regular transshipping port, we seldom have necessity for warehouses for the storage of merchandise in transit or in bond. Occasionally, because of accidents or wrecks, it is necessary to store goods, and for that purpose the Government permits their being placed in properly sealed private warehouses, access to which is permitted only when the owner or his agent is accompanied by a duly authorized person. As the service is limited, there has been no necessity to erect special warehouses; the authorities, therefore, permit the use of any building that possesses sufficient strength and means for safeguarding its contents. The service is very unsatisfactory and expensive to the patrons, nothing being permitted without due authority and the presence of the guard. Subject to the ordinary regulations, small

ɑ Ọn file in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor.