The fall in dollars and sterling at the end of the year was due to the establishment of the >>Exchange Equalisation Fund<< instituted by the Act of November 16th, 1923, which, with the guarantee of the Government and the principal banks, raised an. English-American bank credit of £5,000,000. Only for a time,

however, was this fund able to keep the exchange rates steady, for one thing because there were considerable sums uncovered in the balance of payment, produced by a heavy import surplus in 1923. This import surplus amounted to about 375 million kroner, after which the total net indebtedness of the country at the end of the year may be estimated at about 1,400 million kroner.

In order to give a general impression of the movement in the value of the Danish krone as compared with gold (dollar rate) and the movement of the price level and the note circulation, the following graph has been prepared:

The decline in the value of the Danish krone has also affected the prices of stocks and shares. This is best shown by the following index:

Proportionate Prices of Stocks and Shares
(Prices on July 1st, 1914, being equal to 100).

This summary shows a progressive decline in the value of stocks throughout the whole year. After the National Bank had raised its discount rate from 5 to 6 per cent., on May 1st, 1923, the decline increased; in the fear that the Exchange Conference would give rise to a further increase of the bank rate, and no doubt also owing to a transfer of the demand from Danish stock's to Danish shares or foreign securities, stock prices sank further in October, to suffer another heavy fall in November, after the Act of October 25th, 1923, had prohibited the exportation of bonds payable in two currencies. In December, however, there was a slight improvement.

As regards shares, there was the usual fall after the payment of dividends in the spring months. Later, both the flight from the stocks, by which an investment was sought which would give a return corresponding to the rise in the level of prices, and the more favourable circumstances under which the trades as a whole were working, involved an improvement in shares, so that the total index for shares during the course of the year rose from 77 to 98, whereas the movement in 1922 had gone from 94 to 77.

Despite this rise in the note circulation, the price level and the price of shares, and in spite of the increased trade activity

during the year, the whole rise in the market has kept within narrow limits, happily for the efforts which are now being made to stabilise or improve the value of the krone. This is due in no slight degree to the fact that the banks have continued the limitation of credits, so that the loans and advances of all the banks, despite the demands for credit by trade, have gone down from 2,826 million kroner at the end of February, 1923, (after the considerable writing off which had been effected on the 1922 accounts), to 2,758 million kroner at the end of February, 1924. It is a continuation of this movement which the National Bank desires to enforce by means of its Circular of March 6th, 1924, already referred to.

COMMUNICATIONS

THE PORTS

Most of the Danish provincial towns have harbours, and there are, besides, in many places outside the towns, harbours or piers. Whilst most of the harbours outside the boroughs are private and most of the borough ports municipal, the State owns the ports of Esbjerg, Frederikshavn and Elsinore, as well as some fishing harbours. The Port of Copenhagen is an independent institution, in the management of which are representatives of the Government, Parliament, the Corporation and the large trade crganisations. The Free Port of Copenhagen is owned by the Copenhagen Hårbour Authorities, but is worked by a joint stock company, which has provided it with warehouses, cranes, etc.

The land area of the Copenhagen Free Port is 51.8 hectares and the water area 33.4, while the length of the quays is 4,773 metres. At the various quays the port is from 7.5 to 9.1 metres deep, and a new basin, with a depth of 10 metres, is under construction. There are 40 electric cranes, 7 steam cranes, 3 grain elevators, and a large number of other elevators. The Free Port has contributed greatly towards the rising importance of Denmark as an emporium of the trade with the Baltic countries.

In all about 16,700 ships arrived at Copenhagen in 1923, totalling about 4,500,000 net register tons. The total quantity of goods discharged and loaded was about 4.9 million tons, whilst at all the provincial ports there arrived 67,570 ships, with a total of 8,175,000 net register tons, and a total quantity of goods discharged and loaded of about 9.1 million tons.

The traffic at some of the biggest Danish ports is shown by the following:

For all the ports (including the Free Port and the steam ferry harbours), the receipts from pier and harbour dues in 1921-22 were 11.9 million kroner.

STEAM FERRIES AND RAILWAYS

The main communications of Denmark with foreign countries. are: with Germany the Copenhagen-Gedser route with a steam ferry passage for passengers and goods trucks from Gedser to Warnemünde, whilst the communication by land is via Padborg, in North Slesvig. With England and France the main lines of communication are the regular steam ship services from Esbjerg, while with Sweden the lines of communication are the steam ferry services Copenhagen-Malmö and Elsinore-Helsingborg. The latter route is also one of the main lines of communication with Norway. There are also regular services to Norway and Sweden from Fredrikshavn.

There are about 5,000 kilometres of railway in Denmark, of which about 2,400 belong to the State, while about 2,600 (mostly branch lines of purely local importance) are run privately. The relative proportion of State and private railways in Denmark has, as a matter of fact, constantly changed. In the years about 1900, many private lines were constructed, and since 1916 there have been more private than State lines. The expression private lines is, however, not a very apt one for these; though formally they are run by private companies, nearly all the shares belong to the State and the towns, and thus hardly any free private capital is tied up in them. The total number of railway companies is 60.

The following table shows the importance of the railways to the traffic:

The number of journeys made has of late years remained more or less stationary, and now amounts to a good 40 millions, of which almost 75 per cent. are made on the State Railways.

Despite the great importance of the coasting trade in Den