新加坡和香港都是海岛型自由港,都有天然良港,都属气候温暖而无水封之虞,但都缺乏资源,又都紧挨大陆,长期以转口贸易为本地经济发展的支柱,近三十年来其转口贸易起了类似的变化。 一 远溯一千多年前到十三世纪,新加坡曾是国际贸易港和邻近地区的货物集散地。十四世纪遭到洗劫,从此衰落。到近一个半世纪,由于现代工业和现代航海技术的发展,新加坡重新崛起,成为一个繁荣的国际贸易港。1819年新加坡成为自由港。 Both Singapore and Hong Kong are island-type free ports. They all have natural and good ports. They are all warm and water-free, but they all lack resources and they are all close to the mainland. They have long used re-export trade as the backbone of local economic development. In recent years, similar changes have taken place in its re-export trade. One goes back more than a thousand years to the thirteenth century. Singapore used to be a distribution center for goods in international trading ports and adjacent areas. The fourteenth century was ransacked and declined. Nearly a century and a half ago, due to the development of modern industry and modern navigation technology, Singapore has re-emerged as a prosperous international trading port. In 1819 Singapore became a free port.