Speaking generally, the transatlantic shipping business may be said to consist of three great branches, viz. the cargo, the steerage, and the cabin business. The pool agreements that were concluded between the interested companies covered only the cargo business and the steerage traffic. The condition which alone makes it possible for the owners to work the shipping business on remunerative lines is that all needless waste of material must be strictly banned. The great advantage which was secured by concluding the pool agreement was that it satisfied this condition during the more than twenty years of its existence, to the mutual profit of the associated lines. Each company knew that the addition of new steamers to its fleet would only pay if part of a carefully considered plan, and if, in course of time, such an increase of tonnage would give it a claim to an increase of the percentage of traffic allotted to its services.

Much less satisfactory was the state of things with regard to the third branch of the shipping business, viz. the cabin traffic. A regular “cabin pool,” with a pro rata distribution of the traffic, was never established, although the idea had frequently been discussed. All that was achieved was an agreement as to the fares charged by each company which were to be graded according to the quality of the boats it employed in its services. Owing to the absence of any more far-reaching understandings, and to the competition between the various companies—each of which was constantly trying to outdo its competitors as regards the speed and comfort of its boats, in order to attract to its own services as many passengers as possible—the number of first-class boats increased out of all proportion to the actual requirements, and frequent and regular services were maintained by each line throughout the year. There was hardly a day on which first-class steamers did not enter upon voyages across the Atlantic from either side, and the result was that the boats were fully booked during the season only, i.e. in the spring and early part of summer on their East-bound, and in the latter part of summer and in the autumn on their Westbound, voyages. During the remaining months a number of berths were empty, and the fares obtainable were correspondingly unprofitable. Ballin, in 1902, estimated the unnecessary expenditure to which the companies were put in any single year owing to this unbusinesslike state of affairs at not less then 50 million marks. The desire to do away with conditions such as these by extending the pool agreement so as to develop it into a community-of-interest agreement of comprehensive scope was one of the two principal reasons leading to the formation of the Morgan Trust. The other reason was the wish to bring about a system of co-operation between the European and the American interests.

This desire was prompted by the recognition of the cardinal importance to the transatlantic shipping companies of the economic conditions ruling in the United States. The cargo business depended very largely on the importation of European goods into the United States, and on the exportation of American agricultural produce to Europe which varied from season to season according to the size of the crop and to the consuming capacity of Europe. The steerage business, of course, relied in the main on the capacity of the United States for absorbing European immigrants, which capacity, though fluctuating, was practically unlimited. The degree of prosperity of the cabin business, however, was determined by the number of people who travelled from the States to Europe, either on business, or on pleasure, or to recuperate their health at some European watering-place, at the Riviera, etc. Social customs and the attractions which the Paris houses of fashion exercised on the American ladies also formed a considerable factor which had to be relied on for a prosperous season. In the transatlantic shipping business, in fact, America is pre-eminently the giving, and Europe the receiving, partner. Thus it was natural to realize the advisability of entering into direct relations with American business men.

To the Packetfahrt, and especially to Ballin, credit is due for having attempted before anybody else to give practical shape to this idea. His efforts in this direction date far back to the early years of his business career. We possess evidence of this in the form of a letter which he wrote in 1891 to Mr. B. N. Baker, who was at the head of one of the few big American shipping companies, the Atlantic Transport Company, the headquarters of which were at Baltimore, and which ran its services chiefly to Great Britain. Mr. Baker was a personal friend of Ballin’s. The letter was written after some direct discussions had taken place between the two men, and its contents were as follows:—

It may be assumed that the writing of this letter was prompted not only by the Packetfahrt’s desire to strengthen its position in the United States, but also by its wish to obtain a foothold in Great Britain. This would enable it to exercise greater pressure on the competing British lines, which—indirectly, at least—still did a considerable portion of the Continental business. Ballin’s suggestion did not lead to any practical result at the time, but was taken up again eight years later, in 1899, on the advice of Mr. (now Lord) Pirrie, of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, of Belfast. Important interests, partly of a financial character, linked his firm to British transatlantic shipping; and his special reason for taking up Ballin’s proposal was to prevent an alliance between Mr. Baker’s Atlantic Transport Company and the British Leyland Line, a scheme which was pushed forward from another quarter. He induced Mr. Baker to come to Europe so that the matter might be discussed directly. The attractiveness of the idea to Ballin was still further enhanced by the circumstance that the Atlantic Transport Line also controlled the National Line which maintained a service between New York and London, and was, indeed, the decisive factor on the New York-London route. Ballin, accordingly, after obtaining permission from the Board of Trustees, went to London, where he met Mr. Baker and Mr. Pirrie.

It soon became clear, however, that the Board of Trustees did not wish to sanction such far-reaching changes. When Ballin cabled the details of the scheme to Hamburg, it was seen that 25 million marks—half the amount in shares of the Packetfahrt—would be needed to carry it through. Thus the discussions had to be broken off; but the attitude which the Board had taken up was very much resented by Ballin. Subsequent negotiations which were entered into in the early part of 1900 in Hamburg at the suggestion of Mr. Baker also failed to secure agreement, and shortly afterwards the American company was bought up by the Leyland Line.

At the same time a movement was being set on foot in the United States which aimed at a strengthening of the American mercantile marine by means of Government subsidies. This circumstance suggested to Mr. Baker the possibility of setting up an American shipping concern consisting of the combined Leyland and Atlantic Transport Company lines together with the British White Star Line, which was to profit by the expected legislation concerning shipping subsidies. Neither the latter idea, however, nor Mr. Baker’s project assumed practical shape; but the Atlantic Transport-Leyland concern was enlarged by the addition of a number of other British lines, viz. the National Line, the Wilson-Furness-Leyland Line, and the West Indian and Pacific Line, all of which were managed by the owner of the Leyland Line, Mr. Ellerman, the well-known British shipping man of German descent. The tonnage represented by these combined interests amounted to half a million tons, and the new combine was looked upon as an undesirable competitor, by both the Packetfahrt and the British lines. The dissatisfaction felt by the latter showed itself, among other things, in their refusal to come to any mutual understanding regarding the passenger business. In the end, Mr. Baker himself was so little pleased with the way things turned out in practice that he severed his connexion with the other lines shortly afterwards, and once more the question became urgent whether it would be advisable for the Packetfahrt—either alone, or in conjunction with the White Star Line and the firm of Messrs. Harland and Wolff—to purchase the Atlantic Transport Line.

That was the time when Mr. Pierpont Morgan’s endeavours to create the combine, which has since then become known as the Morgan Trust, first attracted public attention. Ballin’s notes give an exhaustive description of the course of the negotiations which lasted nearly eighteen months and were entered into in order to take precautions against the danger threatening from America, whilst at the same time they aimed at some understanding with Mr. Morgan, because the opportunity thus presented of setting up an all-embracing organization promoting the interests of all the transatlantic steamship concerns seemed too good to be lost. Ballin’s notes for August, 1901, contain the following entry:

“The grave economic depression from which Germany is suffering is assuming a more dangerous character every day. It is now spreading to other countries as well, and only the United States seem to have escaped so far. In addition to our other misfortunes, there is the unsatisfactory maize-crop in the States which, together with the other factors, has demoralized the whole freight business within an incredibly short space of time. For a concern of the huge size of our own such a situation is fraught with the greatest danger, and our position is made still worse by another circumstance. In the States, a country whose natural resources are wellnigh inexhaustible, and whose enterprising population has immensely increased its wealth, the creation of trusts is an event of everyday occurrence. The banker, Pierpont Morgan—a man of whom it is said that he combines the possession of an enormous fortune with an intelligence which is simply astounding—has already created the Steel Trust, the biggest combination the world has ever seen, and he has now set about to lay the foundations for an American mercantile marine.”

A short report on the position then existing which Ballin made for Prince Henckell-Donnersmarck, who had himself called into being some big industrial combinations, is of interest even now, although the situation has entirely changed. But if we want to understand the position as it then was we must try to appreciate the views held at that time, and this the report helps us to do. Ballin had been referred to Prince Henckell-Donnersmarck by the Kaiser, who had a high opinion of the latter’s business abilities, and who had watched with lively interest the American shipping projects from the start, because he anticipated that they would produce an adverse effect on the future development of the German shipping companies. The report is given below:—

The negotiations which Ballin carried on in this connexion are described as follows in his notes:—

The draft agreement, which was discussed at these meetings in London (and which was considerably altered later on), provided that it should run for ten years, and that a mutual interchange of shares between the two concerns should be effected, the amount of shares thus exchanged to represent a value of 20 million marks (equivalent to 25 per cent. of the joint-stock capital of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie). Mutual participation was provided for in case of any future increase in the capital of either company; but the American concern was prohibited from purchasing any additional shares of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie. The voting rights for the Hamburg shares should be assigned to Ballin for life, and those for the American shares to Morgan on the same terms. Instead of actually parting with its shares, the Hamburg company was to have the option of paying their equivalent in steamers. The agreement emphasized that, whilst recognizing the desirability of as far-reaching a financial participation as possible, Ballin did not believe that, with due regard to German public opinion and to the wishes of the Imperial Government, he was justified in recommending an interchange of shares exceeding the amount agreed upon. The American concern was prohibited from calling at any German ports, and the Hamburg company agreed not to run any services to such European ports as were served by the other party. A pool agreement covering the cabin business was entered into; and with respect to the steerage and cargo business it was agreed that the existing understandings should be maintained until they expired, and that afterwards a special understanding should be concluded between both contracting parties.

Immediately after Ballin’s return to Hamburg the Board of Trustees unanimously expressed its agreement in principle with the proposals.

“For my own part,” Ballin says in his notes on these matters, “I declared that I could only regard the practical execution of these proposals as possible if they receive the unequivocal assent of the Kaiser and of the Imperial Chancellor. Next evening I was surprised to receive two telegrams, one from the Lord Chamberlain’s office, and one from the Kaiser, commanding my presence on the following day for dinner at the Hubertusstock hunting lodge of the Kaiser, where I was invited to stay until the afternoon of the second day following. I left for Berlin on the same evening, October 16th (1901); and, together with the Chancellor, I continued my journey the following day to Eberswalde. At that town a special carriage conveyed us to Hubertusstock, where we arrived after a two-hours’ drive, and where I was privileged to spend two unforgettable days in most intimate intercourse with the Kaiser. The Chancellor had previously informed me that the Kaiser did not like the terms of the agreement, because Metternich had told him that the Americans would have the right to acquire 20 million marks’ worth of our shares. During an after-dinner walk with the Kaiser, on which we were accompanied by the Chancellor and the Kaiser’s A.D.C., Captain v. Grumme, I explained the whole proposals in detail. I pointed out to the Kaiser that whereas the British lines engaged in the North Atlantic business were simply absorbed by the trust, the proposed agreement would leave the independence of the German lines intact. This made the Kaiser inquire what was to become of the North German Lloyd, and I had to promise that I would see to it that the Lloyd would not be exposed to any immediate danger arising out of our agreement, and that it would be given an opportunity of becoming a partner to it as well. The Kaiser then wanted to see the actual text of the agreement as drafted in London. When I produced it from my pocket we entered the room adjacent to the entrance of the lodge, which happened to be the small bedroom of Captain v. Grumme; and there a meeting, which lasted several hours, was held, the Kaiser reading out aloud every article of the agreement, and discussing every single item. The Kaiser himself was sitting on Captain v. Grumme’s bed; the Chancellor and myself occupied the only two chairs available in the room, the Captain comfortably seating himself on a table. The outcome of the proceedings was that the Kaiser declared himself completely satisfied with the proposals, only commissioning me, as I have explained, to look after the interests of the North German Lloyd.

“On the afternoon of the following day, after lunch, the Chancellor and I returned to Berlin, this giving me a chance of discussing with the former—as I had previously done with the Kaiser—every question of importance. On October 18th I arrived back in Hamburg.”

The negotiations with the North German Lloyd which Ballin had undertaken to enter upon proved to be very difficult, the Director General of that company, Dr. Wiegand, not sharing Ballin’s views with respect to the American danger and the significance of the American combination. After Ballin, however, had explained the proposals in detail, the Lloyd people altered their previously held opinion, and in the subsequent London discussions, which were resumed in November, the President of the Lloyd, Mr. Plate, also took part. Nevertheless, it was found impossible to agree definitely there and then, and a further discussion between the two directors general took place at Potsdam on November 13th, both of them having been invited to dinner by the Kaiser, who was sitting between the two gentlemen at the table. Ballin’s suggestion that he and Dr. Wiegand should proceed to New York in order to ascertain whether the shipping companies and the American railroads had actually entered into a combination, was heartily seconded by the Kaiser, and was agreed to by Dr. Wiegand. The Lloyd people, however, were still afraid that the proposed understanding would jeopardize the independence of the German lines; but Ballin, by giving detailed explanations of the points connected with the financial provisions, succeeded in removing these fears, and the Board of Trustees of the Lloyd expressed themselves satisfied with these explanations. They insisted upon the omission of the clauses dealing with the financial participation, but agreed to the proposals in every other respect.

The arrangements for such mutual exchange of shares were thereupon dropped in the final drafting of the agreement, and were replaced by a mutual participation in the distribution of dividends, the American concern guaranteeing the German lines a dividend of 6 per cent., and only claiming a share in a dividend exceeding that figure. This change owed its origin to a proposal put forward by Mr. v. Hansemann, the Director of the Disconto-Gesellschaft, who had taken an active interest in the development of the whole matter.

In the course of the negotiations the Lloyd made a further proposal by which it was intended to safeguard the German national character of the two great shipping companies. It was suggested that a corporation—somewhat similar to the Preussische Seehandlung—should be set up by the Imperial Government with the assistance of some privately owned capital. This corporation should purchase such a part of the shares of each company as would defeat any attempts at destroying their national character. Ballin, however, to whom any kind of Government interference in shipping matters was anathema, would have nothing to do with this plan, and thus it fell through.

Ballin thereupon having informed the Kaiser in Kiel on board the battleship Kaiser Wilhelm II regarding the progress of the negotiations, a further meeting with the Lloyd people took place early in December, which led to a complete agreement among the two German companies as to the final proposals to be submitted to the American group; and shortly afterwards, at a meeting held at Cologne, agreement was also secured with Mr. Pirrie. The final discussions took place in New York early in February, Ballin and Mr. Tietgens, the chairman of the Board of Directors, acting on behalf of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie, and President Plate and Dr. Wiegand on that of the Lloyd. Meanwhile, Morgan’s negotiations with the White Star Line and other British companies had also led to a successful termination. Concerning the New York meetings we find an interesting entry in Ballin’s diary:

At the request of the American group the publication of the agreement was delayed for some time, because it was thought desirable to wait for the final issue of the Congress debates on the Subsidies Bill. A report which Ballin, after some further discussion with Morgan and his London friends had taken place, made for the German Embassy in London, describes the situation as it appeared in April, 1902. It runs as follows:

The first semi-official announcement dealing with the combine was published on April 19th by the British Press, and at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Hamburg-Amerika Linie on May 28th, the public was given some carefully prepared information about the German-American agreement. At that meeting Dr. Diederich Hahn, the well-known chairman of the Bund der Landwirte (Agrarian League), rose, to everybody’s surprise, to inquire if it was the case that the national interests, and especially the agricultural interests of Germany, would be adversely affected by the agreement. The ensuing discussion showed Ballin at his best. He allayed Dr. Hahn’s fears lest the American influence in the combination would be so strong as to eliminate the German influence altogether by convincing him that the whole agreement was built up on a basis of parity, and that the German interests would not be jeopardized in any way. The argument that the close connexion established between the trust and the American railroad companies would lead to Germany being flooded with American agricultural produce he parried by pointing out that the interests of the American railroads did not so much require an increased volume of exports, but rather of imports, because a great disproportion existed between their eastbound and their westbound traffic, the former by far exceeding the latter, so that a further increase in the amount of goods carried from the western part of the country to the Atlantic seaports would only make matters worse from the point of remunerative working of their lines.

What Ballin thought of the system of Government subsidies in aid of shipping matters is concisely expressed by his remarks in a speech which he made on the occasion of the trial trip of the s.s. BlÜcher, when he said: “If it were announced to me to-day that the Government subsidies had been stolen overnight, I should heave a sigh of relief, only thinking what a pity it was that it had not been done long ago.”

In Great Britain the news that some big British shipping companies had been purchased by the American concern caused a great deal of public excitement. In Ballin’s diary we find the following entry under date of June 5th:

An outcome of the German-American arrangements was that Morgan and his friends were invited by the Kaiser to take part in the festivities connected with the Kiel Week. The American gentlemen were treated with marked attention by the Kaiser, and extended their visit so as to include Hamburg and Berlin as well.

At a conference of the transatlantic lines held in December, 1902, at Cologne, Ballin put forward once more his suggestion that a cabin pool should be established. The proposal, however, fell through owing to the opposition from the Cunard Line.

The depression in the freight business which had set in in 1901, and which was still very pronounced towards the close of 1902, seriously affected the prospects of the transatlantic shipping companies, especially those combined in the Morgan Trust, who were the owners of a huge amount of tonnage used in the cargo business, and whose sphere of action was restricted to the North Atlantic route. “Experience now shows,” Ballin wrote in his notes, “that we were doing the right thing when we entered into the alliance with the Trust. If we had not done this, the latter would doubtless have tried to invade the German market in order to keep its many idle ships going.”

Meanwhile the Cunard Line had concluded an agreement with the British Government by which the Government bound itself to advance to the company the funds for the building of its two mammoth express liners, the Mauretania and the Lusitania, while at the same time granting it a subsidy sufficient to provide for the payment of the interest on and for the redemption of the loan advanced by the Government for the building of the vessels.

Further difficulties seemed to be ahead owing to the aggressive measures proposed by the Canadian Pacific Company, which was already advertising a service from Antwerp to Canada. To ward off the danger threatening from this quarter, Ballin proceeded to New York to take up negotiations with Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, the president of the Canadian Pacific. He went there on behalf of all the Continental shipping companies concerned, and the results he arrived at were so satisfactory to both parties that Ballin corresponded henceforth on terms of close personal friendship with Sir Thomas, who was one of the leading experts on railway matters anywhere. These friendly relations were very helpful to Ballin afterwards when he was engaged in difficult negotiations with other representatives of Sir Thomas’s company, and never failed to ensure a successful understanding being arrived at.

On the occasion of this trip to America Ballin had some interesting—or, as he puts it, “rather exciting"—discussions with Morgan and his friends. He severely criticized the management of the affairs of the Trust, and tried to make Morgan understand that nothing short of a radical improvement—i.e. a change of the leading personages—would put matters right. “Morgan,” he writes, “finds it impossible to get the right men to take their places, and he held out to me the most alluring prospects if I myself should feel inclined to go to New York as president of the Trust, even if only for a year or two; but I refused his offer, chiefly on account of my relations with the Kaiser.”

Ballin’s suggestions, nevertheless, led to a change in the management of the Trust. This was decided upon at meetings held in London, where Ballin stayed for a time on his way back to Hamburg. Mr. Pirrie also took part in these meetings.

In the meantime the relations between the Cunard Line and the other transatlantic shipping companies had become very critical. The Hungarian Government, for some time past, had shown a desire to derive a greater benefit from the considerable emigrant traffic of the country—a desire which was shared by important private quarters as well. The idea was to divert the stream of emigrants to Fiume—instead of allowing them to cross the national frontiers uncontrolled—and to carry them from that port to the United States by direct steamers. Ballin had repeatedly urged that the lines which were working together under the pool agreement should fall in with these wishes of the Hungarian Government; but his proposals were not acted upon, mainly owing to the opposition of the North German Lloyd, which company carried the biggest share of the Hungarian emigrants.

To the great surprise of the pool lines it was announced in the early part of 1904 that the Hungarian Government was about to conclude an agreement with the Cunard Line—the only big transatlantic shipping company which had remained outside the Trust—by which it was provided that the Cunard Line was to run fortnightly services from Fiume, and by which the Hungarian Government was to bind itself to prevent—by means of closing the frontiers or any other suitable methods—emigrants from choosing any other routes leading out of the country. Such an agreement would deprive the pool lines of the whole of their Hungarian emigrant business. Discussions between Ballin and the representatives of the Cunard Line only elicited the statement on the part of the latter that it had no power any longer to retrace its steps. An episode which took place in the course of these discussions is of special interest now, as it enables us to understand why the amalgamation of the Cunard Line with the Morgan Trust never took place.

Ballin asked Lord Inverclyde why the attitude of the Cunard Line had been so aggressive throughout. The reply was that the Morgan Trust, and not the Cunard Line, was the aggressor, because Morgan’s aim was to crush it. When Ballin interposed that this had never been intended by the Trust—that the Trust, indeed, had attempted to include the Cunard Line within the combination, that Lord Inverclyde himself had also made a proposal towards that end, and that the project had only come to grief on account of the strong feeling of British public opinion against it—Lord Inverclyde answered that, far from this being the case, the Trust had never replied to his proposal, and that he had not even received an acknowledgment of his last letter.

In a letter to Mr. Boas, the general representative of his company in New York, in which he described the general situation, Ballin stated that the statement of Lord Inverclyde was indeed quite correct.

The Hungarian situation became still more complicated after the receipt of some information that reached Ballin from Vienna to the effect that the Austrian Government intended to imitate the example set by the Hungarian Government by running a service from Trieste. After prolonged discussions the Austrian Government also undertook not to grant an emigration licence to the Cunard Line so long as the struggle between the two competing concerns was not settled.

Thereupon this struggle of the pool lines—both the Continental and the British ones—against the Cunard Line was started in real earnest, not only for the British but also for the Scandinavian and the Fiume business. After some time negotiations for an agreement were opened in London in July on the initiative and with the assistance of Mr. Balfour, who was then President of the Board of Trade. These, however, led to no result, and a basis for a compromise was not found until August, 1904, when renewed negotiations took place at Frankfort-On-Main. A definite understanding was reached towards the close of the same year, and then at last this struggle, which was really one of the indirect consequences of the establishment of the Morgan Trust, came to an end.

Looked upon from a purely business point of view, the Morgan Trust—or, to call it by its real name, the “International Mercantile Marine Company,” which in pool slang, was simply spoken of as the “Immco Lines"—was doubtless a failure. Only the World War, yielding, as it did, formerly unheard-of profits to the shipping business of the neutral and the Allied countries, brought about a financial improvement, but it is still too early to predict whether this improvement will be permanent. The reasons why the undertaking was bound to be unremunerative before the outbreak of the war are not far to seek, and include the initial failure of its promoters to secure the adhesion of the Cunard Line—a failure which, as is shown by Ballin’s notes, was to a large extent due to the hesitating policy of the Hamburg company. To make business as remunerative as possible was the very object for which the Trust was formed, but the more economical working which was the means to reach this end could not be realized while such an essential factor as the Cunard Line not only remained an outsider, but even became a formidable competitor.

It can hardly be doubted that the adhesion of the Cunard Line to the Morgan Trust—or, in other words, the formation of a combine including all the important transatlantic lines without exception—would have brought about such a development of the pool idea as would have led to a much closer linking-up of the financial interests of the individual partners than could be achieved under a pool agreement. Under such a “community of interest” agreement, every inducement to needless competition could be eliminated, and replaced by a system of mutual participation in the net profits of each line. This was the ideal at which Ballin, taught by many years of experience, was aiming.

Over and over again the pool lines had an opportunity of finding out that it paid them better to come to a friendly understanding, even if it entailed a small sacrifice, than to put up a fight against a new competitor. Sometimes, indeed, an understanding was made desirable owing to political considerations. However, the number of participants ultimately grew so large that Ballin sarcastically remarked: “Sooner or later the pool will have to learn how to get along without us,” and he never again abandoned his plan of having it replaced by closely-knit community of interest agreements which would be worked under a centralized management, and therefore produce much better results. In other branches of his activities—e.g. in his agreements with the other Hamburg companies and in the one with the Booth Line, which was engaged in the service to Northern Brazil, he succeeded in developing the existing understandings into actual community of interest agreements, and it seems that these have given all-round satisfaction. The negotiations between himself and the North German Lloyd shortly before the outbreak of the war were carried on with the same object.

Throughout the endless vicissitudes in the history of the pool the formation of the Morgan Trust decidedly stands out as the most interesting and most dramatic episode. At the present time the position of the German steamship companies in those days seems even more imposing than it appeared to the contemporary observer. To-day we can hardly imagine that some big British lines should, one after the other, be offered for purchase first to some German, and then to the American concerns. Such a thing was only possible because at that time British shipping enterprise was more interested in the employment of tramp steamers than in the working of regular services, the shipowners believing that greater profits could be obtained by the former method. The result was a noticeable lack of leading men fully qualified to speak with authority on questions relating to the regular business, whereas in Germany such men were not wanting. The transatlantic business threatened, in fact, to become more and more the prerogative of the German-American combination. To-day, of course, it is no longer possible to say with certainty whether the Cunard Line could have been induced to join that combination, if the right moment had not been missed. The great danger with which British shipping was threatened at that time, and the great success which the German lines achieved, not only stirred British public opinion to its depths, but also acted as a powerful stimulus on the shipping firms themselves. This caused a pronounced revival of regular line shipping, which went so far that tramp shipping became less and less important, and which ultimately led to a concentration of the former within the framework of a few large organizations which exercise a correspondingly strong influence on present-day British shipping in general. These organizations differ from the big German companies by the circumstance that they represent close financial amalgamations and that they have not, like the German companies, grown up slowly and step for step with the expanding volume of transatlantic traffic.