Opportunities for Business in Great Waters

Merchants along the Mediterranean littoral have from time immemorial used ships to transport their wares from place to place. The safe anchorage of Gibraltar Bay has likewise played its part in this activity.

No economic history has yet been written on the use of Gibraltar as an import base from Spain and North Africa. Such activity was no doubt accelerated by the Moorish occupation of the Algarve and southern Spain,indeed until they were ex pelled from Europe in 1492, the Strait must have been like a Moorish highway. In spite of Barbary pirates the Spanish occupation of the rock saw contin ued economic activity between the 6,000 wealthy inhabitants and the town of Cadiz and Seville. The plun der of shipping along the coast between Gibraltar and the Algarve also made many a British privateer wealthy. Further proof of the profitability of Gibraltar to the local merchants in the 16th and 17th centuries is illustrated by the fact that when the Rock was captured in 1704 there were no less than 21 churches and monasteries in exist ence. The major memorials to this era being the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned and, though today seriously neglected, Witham's Cemetery.

The establishment of a British garrison and naval base and the end of the Spanish and French sieges of the Rock saw a great ex pansion of the shipping trade particularly due to the declaration by Queen Anne, of Gibraltar as a free port, the establishment of a Lloyds signal station in 1776, the protection offered to British cargo ships by the Royal Navy, the Ad miralty Prize Court,and theNapcv teonic War during which goods were shipped to and from Gibral tar by both sides—all enhanced the Rock's commercial growth.

The establishment of a coaling station for the Royal Navy also ac customed commercial steam ships to bunker in Gibraltar and all the great names in shipping lines called. This trade made the transi tion from coal to oil bunkering easy for the now well-established on shore commercial infrastructure, At the moment Gibraltar supplies, with fuel obtained from Spain, a very large percentage of ships pass- rocco under the latest Intereg projects in aid of coastal trade. As a result Gibraltar is at the north eastern pivotal point of the box

Opportunities lie not only for bunkering, insurance fr cruise liner trading in Gibraltar itself, but for providing the financial, accounting b legal expertise for the burgeoning warehousing activity ing in and out of the Mediterra nean.

The European Union is presently gi\'ing emphasis to Spain and Mo- which has as its other three comers Algeciras, Cadiz and the now be ing constructed new port of Tan gier.

Just as the wealthy Spaniards who occu pied Gibraltar in the 16th century made money out of coastal trading,so some of their shipping interests could be casting cooperative eyes on Gibraltar in or der to accesssome of the Intereg money,available only for trans-border ac tivities. In this there are opportunities for Gi braltar's financial and insurance expertise to come to the fore and gain all the concomitant advantages provided by such a potential in flux of capital to our shipping industry.

Port enhancement is an area where business opportunities lie not only for bun kering, insurance and cruise liner trading in Gibraltar itself, but for providing the financial,accounting and legal expertise for the burgeon ing warehousing activity due to in creased use of Algeciras as a con tainer port. Bulk commodities may no longer be broken in Gibraltar, but, just as in the past wealthy Spanish merchants chose to bring their wealth and treasure to trade from the Rock, so means could be explored to channel the business ac tivities connected with EU Intereg cash to the present day financial service providers in Gibraltar.

Whilst merchant shipping fi nance and ship owners have and still largely conduct their business in Greece, there is no reason why some of these should not now be attracted to the increased waterborne trading along the coasts ad jacent and opposite to Gibraltar, There is now a Category A shipping register, there are plans for en hancement of the port,the Bay sees the second largest container port apposite the Rock in Algeciras, surely time spent in looking at the potential of our "great waters" might prove a profitable exercise.