12 DOCUXM TABY HISTORY OF THE FLOIDA CANlAL

"Water-borne commerce of the Gulf ports." For convenience certain portions
of that section a repeated herm:
 The following table shows the water-borne domestic and foreign commerce
of the Gulf for each calendar yest from 1919 to and including 1929. This period
covers the rise of (u mmconer.e to tbe 19O0 and 19 peaks and the complete
cycle in between. It will be noted that the expanon and contraction ofbuine
in the country as a whole has had comparatively little effect on the Gulf tonnages ,
which have shown, in the aggregage,n n almost-continuous steady increase.
 Foreign and domestic commerce of the United States Gulf ports
ITheM statistam hae been taken from ti annual report of the Chef of Endineers. Local harbor and
 riv traei has ban omitted but trade betwn the Gulf ports themselves included in the cotwe
 totals. Faumsare in tons o 2,000 pounds]

 Foreign trade Coastwise trade
 Year Total
 Imports Exports Receipts Bhipments

1M -................................... 7.040.41 18,471, 081 7,145.14 34 M33.958 67. 574
...........-----..---........ ....------- 7,410 453 17, 8,470 6,84022 34,041,4547 f,235 2
17.---...--....---... -- -................. 7,084 O 14,014. 37 4711, 1U1 324,.484 B,14. 137
1-----..---......--....-.....--...........--------------------......... 8,742,040 1. 527, 03 8, 018.807 30 .7, 810 0,217,193
Im ............................-------...... 87144 15 Oaa 266 5,7 008 2. 33,7 8 5s 6570e 7
1 90 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 7 4 0 ,5 3 3 13 9 4 3 3 0 2 4 15 0 2 4 3 0 0% 7 5 0 4 7 4 0 83 8
...............--...........---..-- 9,.33 11,843I11 3,941.16 1l4 M2 42, SM 13
1922.---------------------.............................---........-. II, 871,94 161012 3, 34,73 12 337, O8 40., 38 38
Il..--.---. ..------...... ......------11, 7,43 16,51 t701 ,301, 082 10, 2, s 40,647.507
-------.... ..-...--.--.......--.------------ 14. 16007 1,7,707 12.439,042 40,.83.571
191...---...................-.....-------...-..---......----------. .478,340 12,8848M %.914.23 13S06, 33 3a081,990

 Thus the total tonnage handled by the Gulf ports during the calendar year
 1929 is 93 percent larger than the 1919 figure, the absolute increase being over
 32,500,000 short tons during the period. The small volume of the tonnage shown
 as "Coastwise receipts" shows that this increase could not have been in the trade
 between the Gulf ports themselves but must have been practically confined to
 traffic between the Gulf and foreign countriesqor between the Gulf and Atlantic
 ports; or, in other words, to traffic that is interested in the proposed canal.
 In the division of this report on commodity studies it was estimated that the
canal traffic would increase by about 26,000,000 short tons during the 16-year
period to 1945, through the natural growth of Gulf commerce, as distinct from
diversion of present rail movement. On the basis of the present proportion
between tonnage for the canal and Gulf tonnage as a whole, this would imply a
total increase in Gulf tonnage during the period of about 37,500,000 tons, or an
average annual increase of 2,500,000 short tons. This may be compared with
the annual increase from 1919 to 1929 of 3,250,000 tons per year shown from the
United States Engineer figures.
 The increase in the commerce of the Gulf ports has been astounding. The
commerce of the Gulf has nearly doubled in the period 1919 to 1929, as compared
with an apparent increase in the commerce of the North Atlantic and South
Atlantic ports of 80 percent. Actually the increase in the Gulf trade as com-
pared with that of the Atlantic seaboard is greater than these percentages would
seem to indicate. The main increase in the Atlantic coast tonnage has come
under "Coastwise receipts" and "Coastwise shipments", through a large develop-
ment of short-haul transshipment trade of no great economic significance. For
instance the enormous petroleum refining and storage business that has developed
around New York and Philadelphia results in what is essentially a tonnage dupli-
cation of great magnitude, in that oil is received from the Gulf, California, or
Venesuela, with one listing of the tonnage; it is stored or refined and a shipment
made to a second Atlantic port, probably only a few miles away, and the same oil
Is thereupon shown as a shipment from the first port and a receipt at the second.
In essence, the same shipment has been counted three times.
 15. A comparative analysis of statistics will disclose that the Gulf ports
receive credit for about 26,600,000 short tons of petroleum products, but by
reason of rehandling in Atlantic ports, credit is given for the same petroleum
amounting to nearly double this figure. For 1929 the net priiary reeeipts in
Atlantic ports from foreign fields and from California and the Gulf field amounted
to 41,000,000 short tons. But the total movement, including foreign imports and