Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/861

 COMMERCE.] LONDON 831 Values Declared values of the exports from London have been made at O f ex. various periods, and are now made annually in the statement of the ports and trade of the United Kingdom. Since 1840 the value has more than imports, quadrupled, being in that year 11,586,037, from which it gradu ally rose almost without intermission till it was 60,232,118 in 1874, but from that year it declined till in 1879 it was 47,335,753. In 1880 it again rose to 52,600,929, considerably above the aver age of the four years 1876-79, which WE* 49,884, 673, but as much Docks , below the average of 1872-75, which was 57,144,480. Xo return of the value of the imports is given before 1872, when they were ! 124,174,141. The value for 1880, 141,442,907, exceeds that of j any previous year, the next being that for 1877, 140,332,773, ) while the average for 1872-75 was 129,449,956, and for 1876-79 I 132,754,772. The following table (XV11I.) gives details of the principal imports for 1860 and 1880, and also a comparison with 1 the United Kingdom in regard to the same articles : 1860. 1880. United Kingdom. Port of London. United Kingdom. Port of London. 54.079 No. 350,853 122992 Sheep and lambs ., 320.21!) 287,203 941,121 679,522 Cocoa. ... tb 9,009,860 6,672.631 Ib 23.511,101 20,750.014 Coffee 82,767,746 72,784,354 cwts. 1,546,451 1,357.397 Corn wheat .... &amp;lt; Qis. 5,880,9-38 1,180,903 55,261,924 12.808,355 Barlev 2,112,861 486.4CO 11,705.290 1,792,338 Outs&quot; ,, 2,290,951 1,645,901 13,826,732 9,375,631 Pea^e ., 314.201 56,289 2.146.251 555,417 Beans 439 834 86 503 2 577 133 537 342 Indian corn ,- 1,851,762 43.188 87,224,733 4,413,708 AVheat me-il or flour cwts. 5,086,220 1,079.394 10,558,312 2,040,124 474,949 820,146 482,132 Lemons and oranges bushels 1,154,410 511.111 bushels. 3,658,799 1,433,588 Raisins cwts. 242,770 149.788 cwts. 395.290 255.613 Hides unlimited i ,, 848,323 408,981 Ib 1,241,788 752,045 Tanned ! Jb 4.707,272 1,960,411 47,653,442 21,417,755 Mahogany tons 44.710 22,590 Ions 41,349 23.709 5,802 145,475 2,983 Copper, part wrought and part unwrought 11,753 3,778 36,578 10.833 50.110 cwts. 389.967 381,757 Oil&quot; train, blubber, and spermaceti oils... tuns 17,029 6,314 tuns 15.231 4,392 Palm oil cwts. 804,326 153,094 cwts. 1,032.823 83.506 Olive oil. .. tuns 20.859 5.068 tuns 20,260 2,597 Seed oil ., 12.99-5 9.022 16,754 2,973 Provisions- bacon and hams cwts 326,100 149,236 cwts. 5,334.648 593,179 Beef, salted 261.259 113.790 1,017,956 126,130 Pork. .. 173.009 128,045 409,267 120,014 Butter 840,112 427,942 2,326.305 319,352 Clu-esc 583,283 202,506 1.775,997 257,507 Ejrgs cub. ft. 838,477 245,135 gt. hund. 6,228,405 909,406 Spirits- nun galls. 7.319.673 5,171.824 galls. 6.107,661 3,873,736 Brandy 1 ,, 2,342,543 1,547,624 3,006,335 1,880,097 Geneva ,, 635,410 206,160 254,503 67,913 S &quot;ar unrefined cwts 8817,276 4,846,132 cwts. 17.001,613 6,509,553 Krfined and crush sugar 345,010 98,281 3.036,074 1,396,905 Molasses 1 ., 606,503 95,372 IVa Ib 88,946,532 83,711,086 Ib 206.971,570 206.816,609 Tobacco i ., 48.936,471 23,483,031 59,571.973 26.645,681 Cigars ,, 2,727,255 1,469,224 3.502,928 2,044,738 Wine Kails 12 475,021 9,178,729 galls. 17,385,496 10,682,179 We. Od and timber: not sawn 1 loads 1,275,109 212,381 loads 2,130,541 222,388 Sawn or split 1,452,806 411,654 4,116,749 1,203,213 Staves ,, 76,378 27,090 103,536 33,729 Wool : sheep and lambs tb 145.501.651 79,700,315 Ib 460.960,907 358,776,758 Alpaca and llama .. . !, 2894,926 31.662 ,, 2,548,656 In the lime of Stow, Billingsgate had begun to supersede Queen- Lithe as the principal landing place of the port of London ; but he also gives a list of other &quot; common watergates,&quot; and mentions that there were besides &quot;divers private wharfs and keys all along from the east to the west end of the city, where merchants of all nations had landing places, warehouses, cellars, and stowage of their goods and merchandise.&quot; On account, however, of the attempts made to avoid the payment of customs by the use of private landing places, a royal proclamation of Elizabeth appointed certain quays to be used as general landing places and others for special purposes. After the great tire the limits of the port were declared to be the North Foreland and London Bridge; certain wharves named &quot;legal quays &quot; were appointed for the general trade, and others named sufferance wharves were permitted to be used under certain con ditions with the special leave of the commissioners. The frontage of the legal quays in 1795 was only 1419 feet, and of the suffer ance quays about 3500 feet, and so inadequate was the storage accommodation that it would not have sufficed even for the single article of sugar. After the proposal for the establishment of wet docks was made by the West India Company the system was very rapidly extended. The West India docks at the Isle of Dogs were opened in 1802, the London docks at Wapping in 1805, the East India docks at Blackwall in 1806, St Katherine s docks to the east of the Tower in 1828, the Victoria docks in 1850, and the Mill wall docks at the Isle of Dogs in 1868. The West India Company was granted for twenty years a monopoly of the West India trade, the London Dock Company of the trade in wine, brandy, tobacco, and rice, and the East India Company of the East India and China trade, but in no case were the privileges of the companies renewed. The various docks have at different times undergone improvement and extension to meet modern necessities, the latest addition being the Albert extension of the Victoria dock, opened in 1880, which affords an additional water space of 70 acres, and is unsurpassed in the com pleteness of its arrangements by any other dock in the world. The St Katherine s, London, and Victoria and Albert docks are now- held by one company, and the East and West India docks by another, who are adding to their accommodation by the construc tion of the Tilbury docks specially for ocean steamers. All the great merchandise docks are thus on the north side of the river, the Commercial docks, which date from 1696, and were reconstructed in 1807, and the Surrey docks (1812), on the south side of the river, being used almost exclusively for timber and grain. The position of St Katherine s docks renders it impossible to adapt them to modern requirements ; and probably, on account of the increased use of large ocean steamers, all the older docks may soon be super seded as regards the bulk of the foreign trade. The water area of tho docks on the north side of the river, which in 1861 was 272 acres, will soon be 465 acres. The Surrey and Commercial dock, which, is very complicated in its construction, has a total area, including land and water, of 330 acres. The land and water area (in acres; of the several docks on the north side of the river at present com pleted or in process of construction is as follows (Table XIX.) : Docks. London. St Kathe rine s. East and West India. Victoria and Albert. Mill- wall. Tilbury. Total. Water 40 10 136 173 36 70 465 Land 59 13 210 4GO 200 530 1,472 Total... 99 23 346 633 236 600 1.937 The bonded warehouse system was sanctioned in the port of Lon- Ware- don in 1803, and the exclusive enjoyment for several years of this house?, privilege gave it a great advantage over the other ports of the king dom. The warehouses of the dock companies, each occupied with their special class of goods, embrace a large portion of the City area, but the rapidity with which goods now pass into consumption renders this kind of dock property at present very unprofitable, and it is probable that very soon many of the warehouses will be turned to other uses. The Custom-House in Lower Thames Street was built by Laiug, Custom- 1814-17, but on account of the subsidence of the central part the house, present Corinthian fagade, 490 feet in length, designed by Smirke, was afterwards added. In the building there is a museum con taining various old documents and specimens of articles seized by the custom-house authorities. Trinity House, Tower Hill, a plain building with an ornamental Trinity fagade, erected in 1793 from the designs^of Wyatt, is the seat of an House, association of mariners which received a charter from Henry VIII.