If lower prices now rule, it is clear there is a very much larger volume of trade now than in the years of high prices. That there has been depression in some branches of the trade of the country may be a fact, but it is only natural to overrate and overstate its reality and importance, and to cast blame upon the wrong parties.
APPENDIX III.
TARIFFS AND CONDITIONS FOR THE CONVEYANCE
OF MERCHANDISE TRAFFIC.
HOLLAND.
There is no scale of rates universally chargeable in Holland; each railway company is authorised by the Concession under which the railway was constructed to charge certain specified rates. The rates actually charged are, as in England, generally lower than the maximum, and they are controlled by the State.
Although the same maximum rates do not govern all the railways in Holland, and the classifications also vary, the basis of a mileage scale is practically the same throughout, viz.:—a rate per kilometre and per ton according to distance, and a fixed charge for Station terminals according to class. The terminal charges on Fast and “Piece” (ordinary) goods include loading and unloading, but in the wagon load classes the terminals do not include those services.
The tariff for the conveyance of through Goods Traffic—i.e., traffic exchanged between all Dutch Railways—is divided into the following classes, viz.:—
1. Fast Goods, carried by ordinary Passenger Trains.
2. “Piece” (Ordinary) Goods, or consignments under 5 tons carried by Goods Trains.
3. Truck loads—Classes A, B and C.