"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٥‎٠] (٧٣٨/٥٠٤)

TRADE
Up to some twenty-five years ago, ‘Akka was the port to
which almost all the grain from the Hauran, intended for
export to Europe and the Syrian coast, was directed and from
which it was shipped. On the completion of the Damascus-
Beirut railway (1896), the grain trade was diverted for a time
to Beirut ; but, since the construction of the Haifa-Der‘a
railway, Haifa has received and shipped, to the prejudice of
Beirut, much of the Hauran grain, and Damascus and Northern
Arabia now obtain a considerable proportion of their supplies
through this port.
The railways constructed still more recently in Southern
Syria—the broad-gauge Rafah-Ludd-Haifa and the narrow-
gauge Tul Keram-‘Afuleh lines—will doubtless still further
modify the trade movement of this region, and will unques
tionably affect the distribution of the trade of southern Syria,
as between the ports of Jaffa, Haifa, and Beirut. In addition,
schemes for new harbour works both for Jaffa and Haifa have
been under consideration for some years, and concessions are
reported to have been granted just before the outbreak of
war ; the extent to which these projects are realized in the
future will have its distinct bearing on the proportion of trade
which will eventually fall to each of the two ports in question.
The extent of the trade of Haifa is broadly shown in Chap.
VIII, p. 304 f. The principal articles of export in approximate
order of value are : wheat, beans and lentils, sesame, barley,
dhura, olive-oil, wine, and eggs. The wheat, derived mainly
though not wholly from the Hauran, averaged 60,000 quarters
annually during the period 1907-13. Sesame is a more local
product, the Plain of Esdraelon and the district of Haifa
producing the larger yield and the best quality of this seed in
Syria : an average harvest allows of some 9,000-14,000 tons
being exported (in normal times) to Marseilles, Genoa, Hamburg,
and Trieste. The wine exported from Haifa is produced
almost exclusively at the Jewish and German colonies of
Carmel and amounts annually to some thousands of hecto
litres. The soaps of Nablus find their outlet, to Egypt and
the Levant, at Jaffa. The principal articles of import at Haifa