Basel: Das Dreiland: Rhein, Handel, Messen und Kunst

Das Dreiland: Rhein, Handel, Messen und Kunst – ein Teil des Buches «Basel als internationaler Finanzplatz» von Dr. Alexander Ressos.

The Dreiland: Rhine, Trade, Fairs and Art

Part H leaves the institutions and industries of the city and turns to the space in which they operate. Basel lies at the point where Switzerland, France and Germany meet, at the bend of the Rhine that Part A described as the knee of the river. The region that the inhabitants call the Dreiland forms a single economic area in many respects, although it is divided by two national borders, by the external border of the European Union customs territory and by three systems of tax, social security and labour law. Goods, workers, capital and works of art cross these borders every day. The legal friction that arises at each crossing is the raw material of a considerable part of the professional services offered in Basel, from customs brokerage and tax advice on cross-border employment to export control compliance and the due diligence of the art trade.¹

The Dreiland is also a space shaped by trade over many centuries. The Rhine carried goods long before the railways arrived. The fairs of Basel go back to the privilege of 1471, while the Kaufhaus collected duties on goods passing through the city for most of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.² The modern economy of the region continues these traditions in new forms. The Rhine ports handle a part of Swiss foreign trade, and the EuroAirport operates as a binational airport on French soil. Customs authorities enforce sanctions and export controls at the border, while Art Basel has made the city a principal venue of the global art market.

The five chapters of Part H follow these strands. Chapter I describes the Rhine ports and the logistics industry, including the law of Rhine navigation, shipping finance, customs warehousing and the ecological recovery of the river after Schweizerhalle. Chapter II examines the trinational economy, the cross-border workers who commute into Basel every day and the taxation of their income, together with the EuroAirport and its unusual legal status. Chapter III treats customs, export control and sanctions at the border as the modern counterpart of the French customs officers whom Part C encountered in the eighteenth century. Chapter IV traces the fairs from the Mustermesse to Art Basel and the MCH Group, while Chapter V concludes with the art market as an asset class, the free ports, the protection of cultural property and the money laundering risks associated with works of art.

Notes

On the concept of the trinational region and its institutions, in particular the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel (TEB) and the Upper Rhine Conference, see the publications of these bodies and of the Regio Basiliensis. To be verified. ↩
See Part A on the fairs privilege granted by Emperor Frederick III in 1471 and on the Kaufhaus, and Part C on the ribbon trade and smuggling at the French border. ↩

About the book

This part belongs to Basel as an International Financial Centre by Dr Alexander Ressos, published here in full, section by section.