Entrepôt

An entrepôt (English: /ˈɑːntrəpoʊ/; French: [ɑ̃tʁəpo]) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored or traded, usually to be exported again. These commercial cities spawned due to the growth of long-distance trade.[1] Such centers played a critical role in trade during the days of wind-powered shipping. In modern times customs areas have largely made such entrepôts obsolete, but the term is still used to refer to duty-free ports with a high volume of re-export trade. This type of port should not be confused with the modern French usage of the word entrepôt, meaning warehouse.

The entrepôt dock of Amsterdam completed in 1830 as a warehouse to store goods "entrepôt", or tax-free in transit

History

Entrepôts were especially relevant in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period, when mercantile shipping flourished between Europe and its colonial empires in the Americas and Asia. For example, spice trade in Europe, coupled with the long trade routes necessary for their delivery, led to a much higher market price than the original buying price. Traders often did not want to travel the whole route, and thus used the entrepôts on the way to sell their goods. This could conceivably lead to more attractive profits for those who were suited to travel the entire route. The 17th-century Amsterdam Entrepôt provides an example of such an early-modern entrepôt.[2]

Examples

Examples of specific entrepôts at various periods include:

Africa Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt Boma, Democratic Republic of the Congo Cap-Vert, Senegal Cape of Good Hope, South Africa Djibouti City, Djibouti Port Said, Egypt Suez, Egypt Tangier, Morocco Tin Can Island Port, Nigeria Zanzibar Asia Aden, Yemen Balikpapan, Indonesia Basra, Iraq Batavia, Dutch East Indies / Jakarta, modern-day Indonesia Busan, South Korea Dubai, UAE Chonburi, Thailand Hong Kong Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Macao Makassar, Indonesia Malacca, Malacca Sultanate and Portuguese Malacca, modern-day Malaysia Manila, Philippines Naha, Ryūkyū Kingdom, modern-day Japan Osaka, Japan Palembang, Srivijaya, modern-day Indonesia Port of Keelung, Taiwan Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan Port Klang, Malaysia Kollam/Quilon, India Salalah, Oman Shanghai, China Singapore Tianjin, China Tokyo, Japan Surabaya, Indonesia Bangkok, Thailand Weihaiwei, China

Americas Colón, Panama Fort Orange, (New Netherland), Albany, New York, US New Orleans, Louisiana, US Saint Paul, Minnesota, US Europe Amsterdam, Netherlands Barcelona, Spain Cádiz, Spain Constantinople / Istanbul, modern-day Turkey Copenhagen, Denmark Gioia Tauro, Italy Guernsey, England Hamburg, Germany Lisbon, Portugal Marseille, France Piraeus, Athens, Greece Rotterdam, Netherlands Saint Petersburg, Russia Venice, Italy Oceania Honolulu, Hawaii Melbourne, Australia

See also

• Free port
• Re-exportation

References

1. Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds TOgether Worlds Apart. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-393-92207-3.
2. Organized Markets in Pre-industrial Europe Archived 8 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine (draft chapter of The Origins of Western Economic Success: Commerce, Finance, and Government in Pre-Industrial Europe) – Kohn, Meir, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 12 July 2003, p. 3