1 nils.bennemann@uni-due.de. The author wants to thank Amanda Dixon and the Science Support Centre of University Duisburg-Essen for the translation into English.
2 Eberhard Gothein, Geschichtliche Entwicklung der Rheinschiffahrt im XIX. Jahrhundert, Vol. 2, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 1903, p. 74ff (Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik 101).
3 Clemens von Looz-Corswarem, « Der Kampf der Stadt Düsseldorf um ihren Freihafen zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts », in Wilfried Feldenkirchen, Susanne Hilger and Kornelia Rennert (eds): Geschichte - Unternehmen - Archive, Essen, Klartext, 2008, p. 17-41, here p. 29.
4 Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Wirtschaft und die gesellschaftlichen Ordnungen und Mächte. Herrschaft, vol. 4, edited by Edith Hanke, Studienausgabe der Max-Weber-Gesamtausgabe I/22-4,Tübingen 2009, p. 12.
5 “The special rights of the regions and of the individual cities fell away; there was a uniform national constitution”: Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1800-1866. Bürgerwelt und starker Staat, München, C.H. Beck, 2013, p. 39.
6 “…each and every nation [may] trade unhindered, and unload their goods, and should they be unable to sell them, to remove them again without the slightest import and export tolls […] It is for sure that a free port attracts many goods and merchants;…”: “Hafen”, in Krünitz Oeconomische Encyclopädie, vol. 21, 1780, col. 21, 5f.
7 Bob Reinalda, Routledge History of International Organisations. From 1815 to present day, New York, Routledge, 2009, p. 29.
8 Robert Lee, “Regionale Strukturen: Seehandel und die Beziehungen zwischen Hafen und Hinterland in Bremen, 1815-1914”, Bremisches Jahrbuch, 2007, 86, p. 136-175, here p. 137.
9 Josef F. Konvitz, Cities & the Sea. Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.
10 C. von Looz-Corswarem, op. cit.; Oliver Karnau, Der Düsseldorfer Hafen: Wirtschaftspolitik und Stadtausbau in wilhelminischer Zeit, Düsseldorf, Droste, 1990, p. 55 (Studien zur Düsseldorfer Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Heft 4).
11 Günter von Roden, “Zur Vorgeschichte des heutigen Duisburger Freihafens”, in Manfred van Rey and Norbert Schloßmacher (eds), Bonn und das Rheinland, Bonn, Bouvier, 1992, p. 245-275, here p. 247.
12 Friedrich Lenger, Metropolen der Moderne: eine europäische Stadtgeschichte seit 1850, München, C.H. Beck, 2013, p. 76.
13 Cf. Figure 1 for the location of the cities.
14 Memorandum from the Wesel Board of Trade to the Prussian navigation commissioner Delius, Wesel, 15 January 1830, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin [now GStAPK], Rep. 113, No. 152.
15 Letter from the Prussian commissioner of Pommer-Esche to the Hesse commissioner Verdier, Berlin, 27 January 1844, Hauptstaatsarchiv, Darmstadt [now HStAD], G4 No. 233.
16 Letter from the Koblenz Board of Trade to the Prussian Interior Ministry, Koblenz, 05 December 1829, GStAPK, Rep. 113, No. 152.
17 Report of the Düsseldorf Board of Trade, 19 November 1829, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf [now LAV NRW D], BR0004, No. 1110, fol. 3r-8r.; letter from the Board of Trade to von Pestel, 26 November 1829, ibid. fol. 1r-2r.
18 “and especially because our city held such for so many years in the past, and nature put them in such a favourable situation for trade and forwarding and so closely bound to the industry-rich cities of the surrounding area and the ‘Bergisches Land’”: Report of the Düsseldorf Board of Trade, 19 November 1829, LAV NRW D, BR0004, No. 1110, fol. 3r-3v.
19 “our age-old connections [sic] with Elberfelde, Barmen and the surrounding region on this and the other side of the Rhine”: Report of the Düsseldorf Board of Trade, 19 November 1829, LAV NRW D, BR0004, No. 1110, fol. 7r.
20 Report of the Düsseldorf Board of Trade, 19 November 1829, LAV NRW D, BR0004, No. 1110, fol. 8r.
21 “only pose a threat if the latter were not to meet this privilege with the most willing and best provision of the free port and its immediate realisation at its own expense”: Report of the Düsseldorf Board of Trade, 19 November 1829, LAV NRW D, BR0004, No. 1110, fol. 4v-5r.
22 “important stock and freight trade which has prompted this city to wish for establishment of a free port”: Letter from the district president of the Province of Rheinhessen to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 August 1831, HStAD G4 No. 223.
23 “Gernsheim has lost a great deal as a result of the abolition of its tollgates on the Rhine, its judicial and revenue office; many of the population are day labourers, usually of poor means – this class would benefit significantly if more trade and commerce were to be brought to the city, particularly as pay is currently very low”: Report of the district adminstrator of Bensheim, 17 August 1831, HStAD G4 No. 233.
24 Letter from the Cologne Chamber of Commerce to the Prussian Interior Ministry, 22 October 1829, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Cologne [now RWWA Köln], Abt. 1, Nr. 37, Fasz. 1.
25 “According to the drafts in question, it appears that only goods arriving on the Rhine may be held in the free port, that the storage time will be limited to a certain number of months, and that the goods may only leave the port again by water”: Letter from the Cologne Chamber of Commerce to the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, 22 October 1829, RWWA Köln, Abt. 1, Nr. 37, Fasz. 1.
26 Plenary session of 17.11.1829, RWWA Köln, Abt. 1, Nr. 37, Fasz. 1.
27 “all goods coming from abroad, without any distinction as to their destination”: Letter from the Cologne Chamber of Commerce to the Prussian Rhine navigation commissioner Delius, 12 September 1831, RWWA Köln, Abt. 1, Nr. 30, Fasz. 21.
28 “under no circumstances, although entering the entrepôt in Strasbourg, may be declared for internal use: they must always be re-exported”: Georg Schirges, Der Rheinstrom. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Geschichte, Handelsstatistik und Gesetzgebung des Rheins, Mainz, 1857, p. 204.