SHIPPING AND NAVIGATION. The shipping in terests of Germany are second only to those of Great Britain and the United States. In the opening year of the twentieth century the strength of the respective merchant marines of the three countries was as follows: United King dom, 9,395,207 tons; United States, 5,524,218 tons; Germany, 1,941,645 tons. The shipping facilities of Germany in 1901 were represented by 1390 steamers of 1,347,875 tons net tonnage, and 2493 sailing vessels, with an aggregate capacity of 573,77etons. In 1891 there were only 941 steamers of 764,711 tons, and 2698 sailing vessels of 704,274 tons capacity, making a total of 1,468, 985 tons. Thus, while the total tonnage increased about 30 per cent., that of the steamers increased more than 76 per cent., while the tonnage of the sailing vessels declined by about one-sixth of its former strength. The number of vessels enter ing and clearing German ports exceeded 89,000 with more than 18,000,000 tons in 1899, as com pared with 10,000,000 tons in 1889, or an in crease of about 80 per cent. In 1899 more than
10,000.000 tons, or over 55 per cent. of the total shipping, were carried in German bottoms, while ten years before only about 32 per cent. of the total shipping was in German hands.
The principal countries participating in the shipping of the German Empire are: Great Brit ain, with about 56 per cent. of the total foreign shipping of the country; Sweden, with about per cent.; Denmark, with over 11 per cent.; Nor way, over 9 per cent.; the Netherlands, less than 4 per cent.; and Russia, with 3 per cent. The principal ports in the order of their importance are Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Danzig, Ltiheck, Kiel, and Kilnigsberg, the first of these ranking close to London and New York in the amount of its shipping. The merchant marine of the Empire employed nearly 45,000 persons in 1900—a small increase over the 40,400 persons in 1891, and 39,600 in 1881.