steamships in particular, Haugesund had 15,900, Trondhjem 11,400,
Drammen 9,000 register tons, and none of the others more than
a few thousand tons.
The most important of our towns as regards the effective
carrying capacity of its merchant service is at present Bergen,
which, with its flourishing fleet of steamships has worked
itself up to a position worthy of this ancient commercial metropolis.
The Bergen fleet almost exclusively consists of steamships,
while that of the capital as yet consists to a large extent of
sailing-vessels. The fleet owned by Kristiania, therefore, although
it is ahead of that of Bergen as far as cubic capacity is concerned,
is behind the latter in effective carrying power. The fleet of
steamships owned by Eristiania has also, however, grown very
rapidly of late years.
Of the aggregate carrying power represented by the Norwegian
mercantile marine, 63.1 °/o belong to the south-eastern part
of the country (coast and fjord towns and districts from the
Swedish frontier to somewhat wèst of the southernmost point of
the country), 26.5 % to Bergen and Stavanger, and only 10.4 %
to the remainder of the country.
VIII. THE TRADE OF NORWEGIAN SHIPS WITH THE
VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The countries and continents of greatest importance to our.
shipping may be seen from the table on the next page.
It will thus be seen that the kingdom of greatest importance
to our foreign shipping is Great Britain and Ireland, whither more
Norwegian tonnage employed in foreign trade goes'than to Norway
itself. The Norwegian flag also, next to the British, is the flag
that is most frequently seen in the ports of Great Britain and
Ireland*) It also appears that it is to a large extent with distant
lands, especially America and Eastern Asia, that the Norwegian
mercantile marine is engaged.
*1, Of. the tonnage annually arriving at, and departing from, British and
Irish ports with cargoes, during the years 1896—98, “« 7 3 million tons in all —,
53 million tons were sailing under the British flag, and 20 million tons under
foreign flags, of which again 4.7 million tons were under the Norwegian flag.'
Countries
Norwegian tonnage engaged
in the carrying trade in 1897
Gross ,
freight,
made, in
© 03 S4C)
© ^
4M3 'S60
(or continents)
Arrivals
Departures
Total
coming
and outgoing
1 1
©
S<D 0033 • £ o
(2 &
Thousand
Reg. Tons
Thousand
Reg. Tons
Thousand
Reg. Tons
Million
Kroner °/° °/p ■
1. Great Britain &
Ireland . . . . 2,447 2,199 4,646 66.5 26.9 25.4
2. America . . •1,311 : 1,881 3-;i92 49.5 ia.5 22.7
3. Northern and Western
Europe exclusive
of Scandinavia
and Great
Britain and Ireland
. . . 1,790 974 2,764' 36.9 16.1 16.9
4. Norway . . . 1,235 1,780 3,015 27.7. 17.5 12.7
6. Sweden, Denmark ¡¡¡|;
and Iceland . 636 797 1,438 16.8 8.3 7.7
6. Asia, exclusive of
the Mediterranean,
and Australia . 752 668 1,420 15.8 8.2 7.2
7. Southern Europe
and countries of
the Mediterranean ( 314 237 . 551 ,10.0 3-2 4.6
8. Africa, exclusive of
the Mediterranean 213 15 228 6.2 1.3 2.8
■ 1 M 100.0
T o ta l! 8,698 8,551 17,249*) 218.4*) 1 0 0 .0
IX. THE PART OF THE POPULATION ENGAGED IN
COMMERCE AND SHIPPING. CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.
FAIRS. COMMERCIAL LAWS.
The total number of merchants and tradesmen in Norway,
according to the latest census (1891), was 15,100, of which 3,700
were women. These merchants and tradesmen had in their employ
altogether 13,100 clerks, foremen, etc. (whereof 4,300 females), and
9,100 male and 700 female workmen; there were also about 600
children under the age of 15, employed in trade. I t will thus
*) In these figures each voyage is reckoned twice.