the tonnage of vessels from France increased from 49,389 to 150,374, and the tonnage of vessels from Holland from 275,238 to 810,639. The following table shows the numbers of the vessels which arrived at Antwerp from the interior in certain years from 1890 to 1912:

Year. From Belgium. From France. From Germany. From Holland.

Total.

No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage 1890 23,374 2,053,939 176 49,389 936 396,020 3,169 275,238 27,655 2,774,586 1900 27,173 3,423,195 328 94,309 1,543 1,076,441 3,946 400,302 32,990 4,994,247 1910 30,151 5,199,586 399 108,069 3,420 2,745,800 5,888 718,171 39,858 8,771,626 1911 33,485 5,829,448 541 149,093 3,833 2,982,649 5,964 744,350 43,823 9,705,540 1912 32,892 5,814,188 522 150,374 3,674 2,922,703 5,972 810,639 43,060 9,697,904

The volume of trade borne in sea-going ships has also shown a constant increase. The Belgian mercantile marine has had a comparatively small growth in recent years, and the growth of the trade of Belgian ports has been much more rapid. The total tonnage of ships entering Belgian ports increased from about 91 millions in 1901 to about 15 millions in 1912; if ships arriving in ballast are omitted, the increase was from about 8 million tons to about 143 million tons. The proportion of Belgian to foreign tonnage was about one-sixth in 1901 and about one-eighth in 1912.

Antwerp has naturally the preponderating share of the Belgian shipping trade; in 1912 the proportion of ships entering Antwerp to those entering other Belgian ports was nearly 5 to 3, and the proportion of tonnage was 13 to 2. Ships of over 2,000 tons constitute more than a third of the total number of ships entering Antwerp every year; the remainder are chiefly ships between 500 and 1,000 tons. The number of sailingships has shown a constant decrease since 1870. In 1850, the entries of sailing-ships at Antwerp were 1,124; in 1870, 2,222; in 1890, 849; in 1900, 571; and in 1912, 311.

The following table gives further details of shipping and tonnage entering Belgian ports since 1890:

The statistics of ships entering Belgian ports vary slightly, according to different methods of calculation, and the next table, showing the proportion of Belgian to foreign entries, differs slightly from the total figures just given:

The largest proportion of foreign tonnage entering Antwerp is British, and the preponderance of British shipping has been maintained in the last quarter of a century. In 1890 British ships constituted over a third of the total number of ships entering Antwerp; in 1912 they still constituted over a third of the number, and the proportion of British to non-British (including Belgian) tonnage, which was 10 to 25 in 1890, had become 10 to 22 in 1912. The greatest absolute increase has been in the number of German ships entering Antwerp, the tonnage of which in 1912 was more than five times that of 1890. Details are given in the following table :

British
German
Norwegian

684

777,606

Ships. Tonnage. Ships. Tonnage. Ships. Tonnage. 2,624 2,565,755 2,732 3,210,678 3,394 6,269,438 908 1,584,708 1,627 4,149,517

310 330,711 265 262,241

The ports to which the largest number of ships go from Antwerp are, in North America, New York and Philadelphia; in Great Britain, London, Newcastle, Harwich, Cardiff, Goole, Middlesbrough, and Grimsby; in South America, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and the northern ports of Brazil; in Africa, Capetown.

(iii) Shipping Lines, Foreign-owned and Domestic.Antwerp, as a port of call for the shipping of the world, is served by a large number of foreign-owned lines. The Belgian mercantile marine, on December 31, 1912, consisted of 105 ships with a total net tonnage of over 180,000.1

The total tonnage increased by about 50 per cent. between 1902 and 1908, and reached 191,000 in 1910, but fell again the next year to 166,000. In the period 1902-12 the average yearly increase was about 7,500 tons, but there was a decrease of about 11,000 tons between 1910 and 1912.

The principal Belgian steamship companies are: Compagnie Nationale Belge de Transports Maritimes, Antwerp, 1899; Agence Maritime Walford, Antwerp, 1902; Océane, Société Anonyme Belge d'Armement et de Navigation, Antwerp, 1903; Compagnie Royale Belgo-Argentine, Antwerp, 1906; Société Anonyme Ghent-Lloyd, Ghent, 1907; Compagnie d'Armement

1 The Board of Trade figures are 181,637 tons, and the Rapport de la place d'Anvers for 1912 gives 188,976 tons.

et de Transports, Antwerp, 1907; Société Anonyme John Cockerill (Ostend-Tilbury line, inaugurated 1896). The Compagnie Nationale Belge de Transports Maritimes has received assistance from the Belgian Government. The Ostend-Dover packets belong to the State, and their passenger accommodation might well be improved.

(iv) Adequacy to Economic Needs.-The rapid growth of the Belgian shipping trade has made it impossible to supply adequate accommodation. Between 1888 and 1905 the number of ships entering the port of Antwerp increased by nearly 50 per cent., and the tonnage by nearly 250 per cent. The problem of the overcrowding of the port is complicated by the circumstance that the canal boats are frequently unloaded into, or are loaded from, the sea-going vessels, and that it is, therefore, impossible to reserve the larger docks solely for the use of the larger vessels. The increase of shipping at Antwerp in recent years has been proportionately smaller than at Amsterdam and Hamburg.

Before the war the Belgian Government was considering schemes for the improvement both of the accommodation at the port and of the access to the sea. In 1905 it was proposed to cut through the loop in the river immediately below Antwerp, thus providing a direct channel to the sea. This proposal, known as the grande coupure, was not accepted when the Belgian Chambers voted money for the improvement of the port in 1906, and a commission was appointed to investigate a number of alternative plans. Finally, in 1912, the grande coupure was abandoned in favour of a rectification in the course of the Scheldt by modifying its curves between the Kruisschans and Austruweel and thus providing about five miles of additional quays. In 1913 a suggestion was made for reducing the

distance from the Rhine by 31 miles through the reopening, by the Netherlands, of the East Scheldt at Woensdrecht.

Apart from these larger schemes, many important improvements were in progress, not only at Antwerp, but at all the Belgian ports, before the outbreak of the war, and a determined effort was being made to render the accommodation adequate to the constantly increasing economic needs. In the twenty years before the outbreak of war, Belgium, it is computed, spent over £16,000,000 on the ports of Antwerp, Ostend, Brussels, Bruges, and Zeebrugge. In 1909, £160,000, and in 1910 £251,000, were expended upon the port of Antwerp alone, and the budget of the port for 1914 contemplated the expenditure of large sums for floating cranes and elevators. Another project closely related to the improvement of the port of Antwerp was under consideration when the war began. Except for the Tamise bridge, nearly 11 miles above Antwerp, there is no bridge across the Scheldt between Termonde and the sea, and communications at Antwerp depend upon ferry-boats and steam launches. In 1909 a committee decided in favour of a transporter bridge and tunnels at Antwerp, from Hoboken on the right bank of the Scheldt to Cruybeke on the left bank, at a cost of about £240,000, and in 1914 it was proposed to modify the plans and to carry a railway over the bridge.

(B) INDUSTRY

(1) AGRICULTURE

(a) Agricultural Labour

The special census of 1895 showed the number of persons employed in agriculture as 1,204,810. This figure represented an absolute increase of 5,491 (or 0.4 per cent.) upon the figures for 1880, but a decrease