. The ocean carrier; a history and analysis of the service and a discussion of the rates of ocean transportation . mpany, hesaid: But, as a matter of fact, it is the worlds ton-nage at large, the cargo-carrying tonnage of theworld at large, which dictates, or rather deter-mines, the current rates of freight both by cargosteamers and by mail steamers, and we are simplydragged into the wake of that great movement,as, I suppose, the great American combine^ hasalready discovered by this time. This statement of the influence of the chartervessels upon the rate for line ships is very easilyunderstoo
. The ocean carrier; a history and analysis of the service and a discussion of the rates of ocean transportation . mpany, hesaid: But, as a matter of fact, it is the worlds ton-nage at large, the cargo-carrying tonnage of theworld at large, which dictates, or rather deter-mines, the current rates of freight both by cargosteamers and by mail steamers, and we are simplydragged into the wake of that great movement,as, I suppose, the great American combine^ hasalready discovered by this time. This statement of the influence of the chartervessels upon the rate for line ships is very easilyunderstood by noting the ease with which a con-siderable share of line traffic may be diverted tocharter vessels or charter traffic to line vessels ifthe gap between the two services becomes toogreat in one case or too small in the other. Withincertain limits the two must rise and fall together. * A reference to the financial difficulties of the InternationalMercantile Marine Company, which, despite its great size,had had little or no beneficial effect on rates, to the greatsurprise and discomfiture of its Line Freight Rates 259 This influence of charter upon line rates is thewide-reaching influence of world rates upon eachother. It should not be construed into any state-ment of similarity of service in general. Thetramp competition exerts this influence by takingthe line freight at the baser end of the traffic also makes easy the formation of new lines,for the fact should not be overlooked that manyfreight lines are merely groups of chartered steam-ers, and if steamers get very cheap, and line ratesstay high, there is the great temptation to rushin and get a share of the good things. Despite this competitive influence line trafficupon the seas presents several distinct contrastswith the charter traffic in the matter of rates andthe ease and extent of the competition which hasbeen considered. One of those differences arisesbecause of the size of the unit of competit
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