business was considered much more satisfactory than before.

To arrive at a proper understanding of the conditions ruling in Hamburg at the end of the ’seventies, it is necessary to remember that the shipping business was still in its infancy, and that it was far from occupying the prominent position which it gained in later years and which it has only lost again since the war. The present time, which also is characterized by the prevalence of foreign companies and foreign-owned tonnage in the shipping business of Hamburg, bears a strong likeness to that period which lies now half a century back. The “Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft,” although only running a few services to North and Central America, was even then the most important shipping company domiciled in Hamburg; but it counted for very little as an international factor, especially as it had just passed through a fierce struggle against its competitor, the Adler Line, which had greatly weakened it and had caused it to fall behind other lines with regard to the status of its ships. Of the other Hamburg lines which became important in later times, some did not then exist at all, and others were just passing through the most critical period of their infancy. The competitors of the Packetfahrt in the emigrant traffic were the North German Lloyd, of Bremen; the Holland-America Line, of Rotterdam, and the Red Star Line, of Antwerp. Apart from the direct traffic from Hamburg to New York, there was also the so-called indirect emigrant traffic via England, which for the most part was in the hands of the British lines. The passengers booked by the agents of the latter were first conveyed from Hamburg to a British port, and thence, by a different boat, to the United States. It was the time before the industrialization of Germany had commenced, when there was not sufficient employment going round for the country’s increasing population. The result was that large numbers of the inhabitants had to emigrate to foreign countries. That period lasted until the ’nineties, by which time the growth of industries required the services of all who could work. Simultaneously, however, with the decrease of emigration from Germany, that from Southern Europe, Austria-Hungary, and the Slavonic countries was assuming huge proportions, although the beginnings of this latter were already quite noticeable in the ’seventies and ’eighties. This foreign emigrant traffic was the mainstay of the business carried on by the emigration agencies of the type of Morris and Co., whereas the German emigrants formed the backbone of the business on which the German steamship lines relied for their passenger traffic. Either the companies themselves or their agencies were in possession of the necessary Government licences entitling them to carry on the emigration business. The agencies of the foreign lines, on the other hand, either held no such licence at all, or only one which was restricted to certain German federal states or Prussian provinces—such, for instance, as Morris and Co. possessed for the two Mecklenburgs and for Schleswig-Holstein. This circumstance naturally compelled them to tap foreign districts rather than parts of Germany; and since the German lines, in order to keep down their competition, refused to carry the passengers they had booked, they were obliged to work in conjunction with foreign ones. They generally provided the berths which the sub-agencies required for their clientèle, and sometimes they would book berths on their own account, afterwards placing them at the disposal of the agencies. They were the connecting link between the shipping companies and the emigrants, and the former had no dealings whatever with the latter until these were on board their steamers. The Hamburg emigration agents had therefore also to provide accommodation for the intending emigrants during their stay in Hamburg and to find the means for conveying them to the British port in question. A number of taverns and hostelries in the parts near the harbour catered specially for such emigrants, and the various agents found plenty of scope for a display of their respective business capacities. A talent for organization, for instance, and skill in dealing with the emigrants, could be the means of gaining great successes.

This was the sphere in which the youthful Albert Ballin gave the first proofs of his abilities and intelligence. Within a few years of his entering the firm the latter acquired a prominent position in the “indirect” emigration service via England, a position which brought its chief into personal contact with the firm of Richardson, Spence and Co., of Liverpool, who were the general representatives for Great Britain of the American Line (one of the lines to whose emigration traffic Morris and Co. attended in Hamburg), and especially with the head of that firm, Mr. Wilding. An intimate personal friendship sprang up between these two men which lasted a lifetime. These close relations gave him an excellent opportunity for studying the business methods of the British shipping firms, and led to the establishment of valuable personal intercourse with some other leading shipping people in England. Thus it may be said that Ballin’s connexions with England, strengthened as they were by several short visits to that country, were of great practical use to him and that, in a sense, they furnished him with such business training as until then he had lacked.

How successfully the new chief of Morris and Co. operated the business may be gauged from the fact that, a few years after his advent, the firm had secured one-third of the volume of the “indirect” emigration traffic via England. At that time, in the early ’eighties, a period of grave economic depression in the United States was succeeded by a trade boom of considerable magnitude. Such a transition from bad business to good was always preceded by the sale of a large number of “pre-paids,” i.e. steerage tickets which were bought and paid for by people in the United States and sent by them to those among their friends or relatives in Europe who, without possessing the necessary money, wished to emigrate to the States. A few months after the booking of these “pre-paids” a strong current of emigration always set in, and the time just referred to proved to be no exception to the rule. The number of steerage passengers leaving Hamburg for New York increased from 25,000 in 1879 to 69,000 in 1880, and 123,000 in 1881.

It was quite impossible for the biggest Hamburg shipping company—the Packetfahrt—to carry successfully this huge number of emigrants. And even if this had been possible, the Packetfahrt would not have undertaken it, because it intentionally ignored the stream of non-German emigrants. Besides, the Company had neglected for years to adapt its vessels to the needs of the times, and had allowed its competitors to gain so much that even the North German Lloyd, a much younger undertaking, had far outstripped it. The latter, under its eminent chairman, Mr. Lohmann, had not only outclassed the Packetfahrt by the establishment of its service of fast steamers—“Bremen-New York in 9 days"—which was worked with admirable regularity and punctuality, but had also increased the volume of its fleet to such an extent that, in 1882, 47 of the 107 transatlantic steamers flying the German flag belonged to this Company, whereas the Packetfahrt possessed 24 only. For all these reasons it would have been useless for Morris and Co. to suggest to the Packetfahrt that they should secure for it a large increase in its emigrant traffic; and even if they had tried to extend their influence by working in co-operation with the Packetfahrt, such an attempt would doubtless have provoked the liveliest opposition on the part of the firm of August Bolten, the owner of which was one of the founders of the Packetfahrt, and which, because they were acting as general agents for the North American cargo and