ANTWERP AS A COMMERCIAL CENTRE By WILLIAM E. LINGELBACH Professor of Modern European History No other phase of the post-war reconstruction is calculated to inspire more optimism than the return of Antwerp and Belgium to their political and economic freedom. The fall, in October, 1914, of the great city with its busy quays and harbors on the lower Scheldt cast a never-to-be-forgotten gloom over the allied nations. It was well known that Germany had coveted the city with its rich tributary territory for a long time. She saw in it the potentialities of a great, if not the greatest seaport of the world. Its conquest was therefore a tremendous stride forward toward the goal of world domination. For four long years, Antwerp in the possession of the enemy gave to that ambition an ominous element of reality. Fortunately, there is now no question of this key position of western Europe being under any flag save that of Belgium. The revival of Antwerp as a centre of commerce and civilization is being looked forward to by all friends of justice and fair play with confidence and satisfaction. The unusual possibilities of Antwerp as a commercial centre are less generally known than students, who are more familiar with the subject, suppose. Most persons look on Antwerp as an excellent city enjoying relatively about the same position with respect to the larger cities of Europe as does Boston to New York. Very few have any notion of the extraordinary growth of its commerce in the decades before the war. Fewer still realize that in the late nineties its foreign trade surpassed that of London, while the net tonnage entering and leaving its harbors in 1912 actually exceeded that of New York. The city and harbor are located about fifty miles up the Scheldt. It is by its geography the natural emporium of the most active commerical and industrial section of the world. It is the centre of northwestern Europe, the area on which there has developed since the geographic discoveries of the 15th century, the greatest industrial and commercial life known to history. For the past three hundred years this region has been the seat of modern civilization, and Antwerp is its hub, the cross-roads of its highways; the natural emporium of the North Sea basin, comprising on its continental side alone, over 90,000,000 people. More immediately it is the exclusive harbor for Belgium, comparatively one of the richest manufacturing and agricultural countries of the world. Nowhere else could there be found in the years immediately before the war a more highly developed and intensive economic life than in little Belgium. Thus on an area of 11,373 square miles she supported a population of 7,658,000, that is 670 or nearly 700 persons per square mile, or a greater density of population than is to be found in any other nation. In the United Kingdom there were 380, in Germany and Italy over 300, in China 200, in India 175 and in Pennsylvania 170, while the average for the United States is 34. On the Belgium basis, the total population of the United States would be more than two billions and that of Germany 150 millions. Belgium maintained 4565 kilometres of heavy and 4200 kilometres of light railways, or a total of 298 kilometres per square kilometre. A similar ratio would have given Germany 161,000 instead of 62, 213 kilometres of railways. that The average size of the Belgium farm is only about of the English farm, that is 14.3 acres instead of 34. The very large holdings which form so conspicuous a part of the English land holding are almost entirely absent in Belgium, yet nearly all the farms small though they are, are owned by those who work them. The coal production of Belgium was 23 million tons, or over 3 tons per capita. A similar ratio would have given Germany 201 million tons instead of only 177 million. The foreign commerce of Belgium in 1913 was 8765 million francs, or 1144 francs per head. At that rate the foreign commerce of Germany would have amounted to about 75 billion francs, whereas it was but 24 millards. The basis for this remarkable development which may well be compared with that of the area composed in a semicircle of 150 miles in radius from New York, is unusually varied. In addition to the exceptionally fine geographical location already described, the territory immediately tributary to Antwerp, its "hinterland," enjoys all the advantages of an economic geography of unrivalled excellence. Its industrial life is built up on the firm foundations of two great coal deposits lying end to end across the centre of Belgium from France to the German border. To these there was added, some years before the war, another equally rich and extensive coal field in the Campine district near Antwerp, the presence of which assures an abundant supply of coal for many years to come. In the matter of food the region is equally fortunate because the fertility of the Belgium farms through intensive farming added to the facilities for importation and distribution via Antwerp serve to keep down the cost of living and secures a relatively cheap food supply. The importance of this in an industrial area is of course evident. Equally important is the well recognized fact that Belguim's dense population is amazingly industrious and possessed of great productive energy. More than two thirds of Belguim's seven millions live by industry and only one third on the land. Yet Belgian cities are peculiarly free from the slums which form so characteristic a part of most industrial cities. The population is widely distributed in many towns of relatively small size. And although the houses are often mean and poor, very many of the workers families are thus able to have small plots of ground for gardens. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Antwerp appears first in history in the 7th century. "But its situation at the open mouth of the great estuary of the Scheldt exposed to every passing piratical invader rendered it unfit for the purposes of early commerce." During the 9th century it suffered severely at the hands of the ubiquitous Norsemen. But in the 11th century it appears again in the chronicles of the period as the capital of a margraviate under the Duke of Brabant, Godfrey of Bouillon being its most famous over-lord. This was in the days when Flanders, semi-independent and under its own counts occupied a middle position geographically and politically between France and the Empire, and comparatively free from the wars that affected them. Flemish cities enjoyed a preeminence in the civilization of the north similar to that of the city states of Italy. Of these Bruges, connected with the sea by its canals and sufficiently inland for safety, attained an enviable leadership in the 14th and 15th centuries. But under Maximilian of Austria it lost in favor and its trade was transferred to other cities, mainly to Antwerp. The discovery of America and the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope revolutionized both commerce and navigation. Vessels were built larger and of deeper draught. The shallow canals and rivers of Bruges, Ghent and Brussels were no longer adequate. On the other hand the deep spacious and open port of Antwerp was perfectly adapted to the shipping of the new epoch. Its commerce increased by leaps and bounds, attracting to itself the most important commercial enterprises of the period. The Merchants Adventurers of England had chosen it as the residence of their Court as early as 1407. The Fuggers of Augsburg left Bruges for Antwerp in 1505. the Hanseatic League established itself there in 1545, the Venetian fleet made it the principal port of call for its trade in north European waters, while the Portuguese, Dutch, Genoese, like the Venetians, Germans and English, all had their entrepots in the city on the Scheldt. By the middle of the 16th century it had far surpassed all rivals in wealth and prosperity. Even the Italian cities acknowledged its preeminence and Antwerp was regarded as the Venice of the North. The learned Florentine historian of this period, Guicciardini, writes enthnsiastically of the extent and value of its trade. The great Fairs of Antwerp like those of Leipsic in later times attracted thousands of merchants from all parts of the world. "The chief imports were wool and other agricultural products from England, grain from the Baltic, wines from France and Germany, spices and sugar from Portuguese territory, and silks and oriental luxuries from Venice and other parts of Italy. The exports were manufactured goods of Flanders and Brabant, countries which still took the lead in textile fabrics, tapestries, carpets and many other important industries." The first of European cities to establish a Bourse, it soon became the financial center of the world. Financial transactions of great international significance were made. To Το students of English history the activities of Sir Thomas Gresham will, of course, come to mind at once. Millions of pounds sterling changed hands without disturbing the business equilibrium. Guicciardini estimates the merchandise imported in 1560 at ninety million florins, while Scribanus in his history "Antwerpia" reports having counted 2500 ships on the Scheldt, over one hundred arriving daily. The population of the city at this time, according to the former, was about 100,000, but the local historian of Antwerp puts it at 200,000. From the beginning its citizens, like those of so many other cities of the Low Countries, showed intense love for liberty and freedom. In the famous statute of 1290, the magna charta of Antwerp, individual and civil rights were guaranteed. Foreigners were secured in their rights and privileges by special charters, the terms of which were scrupulously observed. It is to this period of wealth and prosperity that Antwerp and Belgium owe most of the buildings and works of art that still adorn it It reflects both in its spirit and form its democratic and commercial background and is in strong contrast to the regal and monarchical art of France, or the princely and aristocratic art of Rennaissance Italy. The art of Belgium is essentially commercial. "In place of the regal and private |