EARL OF RONALDSHAY (Middlesex, Hornsey)To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will give the names of the first six shipping ports of the world, judged by the tonnage of their shipping entered and cleared; and the 1439 amount of tonnage of ships entered and cleared in the case of each port for the latest year for which statistics are available.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) I regret that it is not possible to give the information desired, on account of the absence of records of coasting trade in
| Total net tonnage of Vessels which entered and cleared at the six principal shipping ports of the world in 1906:— | ||
| Name of Port. | Total Tonnage entered and cleared. | |
| In the Foreign Trade. | In the Coasting Trade. | |
| Antwerp | 21,676,118 | Little or none. |
| Hamburg | 20,120,198 | 1,631,780 (including river traffic) |
| Hong Kong | 19,833,666 | None |
| London | 19,407,942 | 14,716,141 |
| New York | 20,390,953 | * |
| Rotterdam | 15,372,480 | No record. |
| * 7,136 vessels arrived coastwise in 1906, but no record of their tonnage is available, nor is any record available as to clearances. |
§ Note.—(1) The system of computing net tonnage adopted at Antwerp differs materially from that in force at the other ports named, and results in the Antwerp figures being considerably enhanced.
§ (2) The above figures do not include vessels which have been entered or cleared from or to places abroad at some other port in the respective countries on the same voyage. If these duplicate entries or clearances could be included the figures for London would probably be increased to a greater extent than those for the other ports mentioned.