COMMERCE. The growth and average annual amount of Norway's trade may be seen from the following table: The aggregate foreign commerce since the mid dle of the nineteenth century has more than quad rupled. The imports largely exceed the exports, but this difference is covered to a great extent by the profits front the shipping trade, as Nor way is a great carrier of freight for foreign Coun tries. Articles of food and drink are the largest imports. Nearly half the value of the imports is represented by cereals. rye being the chief item, with barley, wheat flour. rye Hour, and wheat fol lowing. Groceries, particularly sugar and coffee, are large imports. Bacon and other meats are brought chiefly from the United States. Cotton and woolen goods and yarn are the chief textile purchases. Among the imports of raw material are coal, hides and skins, iron and steel, cotton, wool and Ileum. The country buys over 1.250.000 tons of coal every year. Oils, particularly kero sene, hempseed, and linseed, amount to about $1,500.000 a year. Steam-engines, locomotives, metal goods, and vessels are also large imports. Timber and fishery products are the most inupor tant exports. About one-fourth of the timber is sent abroad as deals and boards. Some :150, 000 tons of wood pulp are annually sold. The increased sales of the products of agriculture and cattle-raising, which have quadrupled since 1871-75. are especially due to exports of butler and condensed milk. Among other important ex ports are packing paper, ships, ice, dressed stone, iron and steel nails, and metal and ores. The United King(lion and Germany are most inquor tant in Norwegian connneree, the United King dom eommanding about one-third and Germany one-fourth of the entire trade, while Sweden has less than a tenth. The sales to the United States are very small, as the butter country produces in great abundance most of the export commodi ties of Norway: but Norway hays front this country cotton. wheat. provisions, tools, machin ery, fertilizers, locomotives, and leather goods to the value of several million dollars a year. The
foreign vommerce is carried on chiefly through the ports of Christiania. Bergen, and Trondhjem.
the towns of Fredrikstad and Dranunen being also especially important. ('hris tiaisand is widely known for its export of salted and dried fish.
THANsconr.vrioN ANn CommuNteArtoxs. The Norwegians are a race of sailors. Their mer chant marine is the fourth largest in the %vorld, and in proportion to population it heads the list. While the natural comm erect is comparatively small, Norwegian vessels :Ind sailors are eon spieuous in the sea carriage of freight for for eign nations. A considerable number of their vessels are engaged in the fruit trade between the States and Latin America. In 1902 the mercantile marine included 5445 sailing vessels (935.9 IT tons) and 1223 steamers (531,112 tons). or a total of 6668 vessels with a tonnage of 1,167,089. The total length of railroads in 1901 was 1308 miles, of which the State railroads had a mileage of 116S.
BANks. The right to issue paper money is re served to the lia k of Norway (Norges Bank), a joint stock bank owned in part Ii the State. The bank has charge of the money transactions of the State, and does business as a loan, circula tion. discount, and deposit institution. The head office is at Christiania, and it has twelve branch offices in the most important towns. The bal ance sheets for 1901 showed total assets of $26,578,926. The :Mortgage Bank of the King dom of Norway, Norges llypothek makes loans on real estate. The capital of the bank is partly supplied by the State, and amounted in 1901 to $4,690,000; the loans on at the end of 1901, $36.159,560. of which one-fourth had been granted on town and three-fourths on country property; the total amount of bonds issued was $34.062.671. Them were 78 private joint stock banks. with a paid up capital of $11,373,492. number of char tered savings banks. all controlled by the Minis try of Finance, was 421, with 695,524 depositors and $86.292,423 deposits.