East Prussia). The total number of German-speaking people, Apart from the foreigners above mentioned, German subjects 12,000,000 200,000 2,300,000 500,000 2,300,000 13,000,000 100,000 600,000 150,000 The population of the empire has thus increased, since 1871, by 19.582,486 or 47.6%. The increase of population during 18951900 was greatest in Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, Saxony, Prussia and Baden, and least in Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Waldeck. Of the total population in 1900, 54.3% was urban (i.e. living in towns of 2000 inhabitants and above), leaving 45.7 % to be classified as rural. On the 1st of December 1905, of the total population 29,884,681 were males and 30,756,597 females; and it is noticeable that the male population shows of late years a larger relative increase than the female, the male population having in five years increased by 2,147.434 and the female by only 2,126,666. The greater increase in the male population is attributable to diminished emigration and to the large increase in immigrants, who are mostly males. In 1905, 485,906 marriages were contracted in Germany, being at the rate of 80 per thousand inhabitants. In the same year the total number of births was 2,048,453. Of these, 61,300 were stillborn and 174.494 illegitimate, being at the rate, respectively, of 3% and 8.5% of the total. Illegitimacy is highest in Bavaria (about 15%), Berlin (14%), and over 12% in Saxony, MecklenburgSchwerin and Saxe-Meiningen. It is lowest in the Rhine Province and Westphalia (3.9 and 2-6 respectively). Divorce is steadily on the increase, being in 1904, 11.1 per 10,000 marriages, as against 8.1, 8.1, 93 and 10.1 for the four preceding years. The average deaths for the years 1901-1905 amounted to 1,227,903; the rate was thus 20-2 per thousand inhabitants, but the death-rate has materially decreased, the total number of deaths in 1907 standing at 1,178,349: the births for the same year were 2,060,974. In connexion with suicides, it is interesting to observe that the highest rates prevail in some of the smaller and more prosperous states of the empire-births than in the case of the German people in the eastern provinces for example, in Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and SaxeAltenburg (on a three years' average of figures), while the Roman Catholic country Bavaria, and the impoverished Prussian province of Posen show the most favourable statistics. For Prussia the rate is 20, and for Saxony it is as high as 31 per 100,000 inhabitants. The large cities, notably Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau and Dresden, show, however, relatively the largest proportion. In 1900 the German-speaking population of the empire amounted to 51,883.131. Of the inhabitants speaking other languages there were: Polish, 3,086,489; French (mostly in Lorraine), 211,679; Masurian, 142.049: Danish, 141,061; Lithuanian, 106,305; Cassubian, 100,213: Wendish, 93,032; Dutch, 80,361, Italian, 65.961; Moravian, 64.382; Czech, 43.016; Frisian, 20,677: English, 20,217; Walloon, 11,841. In 1905 there were resident within the empire 1,028,560 subjects of foreign states, as compared with 778,698 in 1900. Of these 17.293 were subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, 17,184 of the United States of America and 20,584 of France. The bulk of the other foreigners residing in the country belonged to countries lying contiguous, such as Austria, which claimed nearly the half, Russia and Italy. Languages.-The German-speaking nations in their various branches and dialects, if we include the Dutch and the Walloons, extend in a compact mass along the shores of the Baltic and of the North Sea, from Memel in the east to a point between Gravelines and Calais near the Straits of Dover. On this northern line the Germans come in contact with the Danes who inhabit the northern parts of Schleswig within the limits of the German empire. A line from Flensburg south-westward to Joldelund and thence northwestward to Hoyer will nearly give the boundary between the two idioms. The German-French frontier traverses Belgium from west to east, touching the towns of St Omer, Courtrai and Maastricht. Near Eupen, south of Aix-la-Chapelle, it turns southward, and near Arlon south-east as far as the crest of the Vosges mountains, which it follows up to Belfort, traversing there the watershed of the Rhine and the Doubs. In the Swiss territory the line of demarcation passes through Bienne, Fribourg, Saanen, Leuk and Monte Rosa. In the south the Germans come into contact with Rhaeto-Romans and Italians, the former inhabiting the valley of the Vorder-Rhein and the Engadine, while the latter have settled on the southern slopes of the Alps, and are continually advancing up the valley of the Adige. Carinthia and Styria are inhabited by German people, except the valley of the Drave towards Klagenfurt. Their eastern neighbours there are first the Magyars, then the northern Slavs and the Poles. The whole eastern frontier is very much broken, and cannot be described in a few words. Besides detached German colonies in Hungary proper, there is a considerable and compact German (Saxon) population in Transylvania. The river March is the frontier north of the Danube from Pressburg as far as Brünn, to the north of which the German regions begin near Olmütz, the interior of Bohemia and Moravia being occupied by Czechs and Moravians. In these countrics the Slav language has been steadily superseding the German. In the Prussian provinces of Silesia and Posen the eastern parts are mixed territories, the German language progressing very slowly among the Poles. In Bromberg and Thorn, in the valley of the Vistula, German is prevalent. In West Prussia some parts of the interior, and in East Prussia a small region along the Russian frontier, are occupied by Poles (Cassubians in West Prussia, Masurians in The question, much disputed between Germans and Danes, is exhaustively treated by P. Lauridsen in F. de Jessen's La Question de Sleswig (Copenhagen, 1906), pp. 114 et seq. According to the census of the 1st of December 1900 there were of Prussia, to immigration from Russia, and to the Polonization of Russians flocked to Germany in thousands after the Russo-Japanese War and the insurrections in Russia, and the figures given for 1900 had been doubled in 1907. Males preponderate among the various nationalities, with the exception of the British, the larger proportion of whom are females either in domestic service or engaged in tuition. Chief Towns.-According to the results of the census of the 1st of December 1905 there were within the empire 41 towns with populations exceeding 100,000, viz.: Density of Population. In respect of density of population, Germany with (1900) 269-9 and (1905) 290-4 inhabitants to the square mile is exceeded in Europe only by Belgium, Holland and England. Apart from the free cities, Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, the kingdom of Saxony is the most, and MecklenburgStrelitz the least, closely peopled state of the empire. The most thinly populated districts are found, not as might be expected in the mountain regions, but in some parts of the plains. Leaving out of account the small centres, Germany may be roughly divided into two thinly and two densely populated parts. In the former division has to be classed all the North German plain. There it is only in the valleys of the larger navigable rivers and on the southern border of the plain that the density exceeds 200 inhabitants per square mile. In some places, indeed, it is far greater, e.g. at the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, in East Holstein, in the delta of the Memel and the environs of Hamburg. This region is bordered on the south by a densely peopled district, the northern boundary of which may be defined by a line from Coburg via Cassel to Münster, for in this part there are not only very fertile districts, such as the Goldene Aue in Thuringia, but also centres of industry. The population is thickest in upper Silesia around Beuthen (coal-fields), around Ratibor, Neisse and Waldenburg (coal-fields), around Zittau (kingdom of Saxony), in the Elbe valley around Dresden, in the districts of Zwickau and Leipzig as far as the Saale, on the northern slopes of the Harz and around Bielefeld in Westphalia. In all these the density exceeds 400 inhabitants to the square mile, and in the case of Saxony rises to 750. The third division of Germany comprises the basin of the Danube and Franconia, where around Nuremberg, Bamberg and Würzburg the population is thickly clustered. The fourth division embraces the valleys of the upper Rhine and Neckar and the district of Düsseldorf on the lower Rhine. In this last the proportion exceeds 1200 inhabitants to the square mile. Emigration.-There have been great oscillations in the actual emigration by sea. It first exceeded 100,000 soon after the FrancoGerman War (1872, 126,000), and this occurred again in the years 1880 to 1892. Germany lost during these thirteen years more than 1,700,000 inhabitants by emigration. The total number of those who sailed for the United States from 1820 to 1900 may be estimated at more than 4,500,000. The number of German emigrants to Brazil between 1870 and 1900 was about 52,000. The greater number of the more recent emigrants was from the agricultural provinces of northern Germany-West Prussia, Posen, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover, and sometimes the emigration reached 1% of the total population of these provinces. In subsequent years the emigration of native Germans greatly decreased and, in 1905, amounted only to 28,075. But to this number must be added 284.787 foreigners who in that year were shipped from German ports (notably Hamburg and Bremen) to distant parts. Of the above given numbers of purely Gerinan emigrants 26,007 sailed for the United States of America; 243 to Canada; 333 to Brazil; 674 to the Argentine Republic; 7 to other parts of America; 57 to Africa; and 84 to Australia. Agriculture.-Despite the enormous development of industries and commerce, agriculture and cattle-rearing still represent in Germany a considerable portion of its economic wealth. Almost two-thirds of the soil is occupied by arable land, pastures and meadows, and of the whole area, in 1900, 91% was classed as productive. Of the total area 47.67% was occupied by land under tillage, 0.89% by gardens, 11.02% by meadow-land, 5.01% by pastures, and 0.25% by vineyards. The largest estates are found in the Prussian provinces of Pomerania, Posen and Saxony, and in East and West Prussia, while in the Prussian Rhine province, in Baden and Württemberg small farms are the rule. The same kinds of cereal crops are cultivated in all parts of the empire, but in the south and west wheat is predominant, and in the north and east rye, oats and barley. To these in some districts are added spelt, buckwheat, millet, rice-wheat, lesser spelt and maize, In general the soil is remarkably well cultivated. The three years' rotation formerly in use, where autumn and spring-sown grain and fallow succeeded each other, has now been abandoned, except in some districts, where the system has been modified and improved. In south Germany the so-called Fruchtwechsel is practised, the fields being sown with grain crops every second year, and with pease or beans, grasses, potatoes, turnips, &c., in the intermediate years. In north Germany the mixed Koppelwirthschaft is the rule, by which system, after several years of grain crops, the ground is for two or three seasons in pasture. (Beta vulgaris) is largely grown in some districts for the production of sugar, which has greatly increased of recent years. There are two centres of the beet sugar production: Magdeburg for the districts Prussian Saxony, Hanover, Brunswick, Anhalt and Thuringia, and Frankfort-on-Oder at the centre of the group Silesia, Brandenburg and Pomerania. Flax and hemp are cultivated, though not so much as formerly, for manufacture into linen and canvas, and also rape seed for the production of oil. The home supply of the former no longer suffices for the native demand. The cultivation of hops is in a very thriving condition in the southern states of Germany. The soil occupied by hops was estimated in 1905 at 98,000 acresa larger area than in Great Britain, which had in the same year about 48,000 acres. The total production of hops was 29,000 tons in 1905, and of this over 25,000 were grown in Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine. Almost the whole yield in hops is consumed in the country by the great breweries. Tobacco forms a most productive and profitable object of culture in many districts. The total extent under this crop in 1905 was about 35,000 acres, of which 45% was in Baden, 12% in Bavaria, 30% in Prussia, and the rest in Alsace and Hesse-Darmstadt. In the north the plant is cultivated principally in Pomerania, Brandenburg and East and West Prussia. Of late years the production has some what diminished, owing to the extensive tobacco manufacturing industries of Bremen and Hamburg, which import almost exclusively foreign leaves. Vine. Ulm, Nuremberg, Quedlinburg, Erfurt, Strassburg and Guben are famed for their vegetables and garden seeds. Berlin is noted for its flower nurseries, the Rhine valley, Württemberg and the Elbe valley below Dresden for fruit, and Frankfort-on-main for cider. The culture of the vine is almost confined to southern and western Germany, and especially to the Rhine district. The northern limits of its growth extend from Bonn in a north-easterly direction through Cassel to the southern foot of the Harz, crossing 52° N. on the Elbe, running then cast some miles to the north of that parallel, and finally turning sharply towards the south-west on the Warthe. In the valley of the Saale and Elbe (near Dresden), and in lower Silesia (between Guben and Grünberg), the number of vineyards is small, and the wines of inferior quality: but along the Rhine from Basel to Coblenz, in Alsace, Baden, the Palatinate and Hesse, and above all in the province of Nassau, the lower slopes of the hills are literally covered with vines. Here are produced the celebrated Rüdesheimer, Hochheimer and Johannisberger. The vines of the lower Main, particularly those of Würzburg. are the best kinds; those of the upper Main and the valley of the Neckar are rather inferior. The Moselle wines are lighter and more acid than those of the Rhine. The total amount produced in Germany is estimated at 1000 million gallons, of a value of £4,000,000; Alsace-Lorraine turning out 400 millions; Baden, 175: Bavaria, Württemberg and Hesse together, 300; while the remainder, which though small in quantity is in quality the best, is produced by Prussia. Live stack. The cultivation of grazing lands in Germany has been greatly improved in recent times and is in a highly prosperous condition. (especially the marsh-lands near the sea) and the grandThe provinces of Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania, Hanover duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin are particularly remarkable in this respect. The best meadow-lands of Bavaria are in the province of Franconia and in the outer range of the Alps, and those of Saxony in the Erzgebirge. Württemberg, Hesse and Thuringia also yield cattle of excellent quality. These large cattle-rearing centres not only supply the home markets but export live stock in considerable quantities to England and France. Butter is also largely exported to England from the North Sea districts and from Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. The breeding of horses has attained a great perfection. The main centre is in East and West Prussia, then follow the marsh districts on the Elbe and Weser, some parts of Westphalia, Oldenburg, Lippe, Saxony and upper Silesia, lower Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine. Of the stud farms Trakehnen in East Prussia and Graditz in the Prussian province of Saxony enjoy a European reputation. The aggregate number of sheep has shown a considerable falling off, and the rearing of them is mostly carried on only on large estates, the number showing only 9,692,501 in 1900, and 7,907,200 in 1904, as against 28,000,000 in 1860. As a rule, sheep-farming is resorted to where the soil is of inferior quality and unsuitable for tillage and the breeding of cattle. Far more attention is accordingly given to sheep-farming in northern and north-eastern Germany than in Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia, the Rhineland and south Germany. The native demand for wool is not covered by the home production, and in this article the export from the United Kingdom to Germany is steadily rising, having amounted in 1905 Taking the average of the six years 1900-1905, the crop of wheat to a value of £1,691,035, as against £742,632 in 1900. The largest amounted to 3.550,033 tons (metric), rye to 9,296,616 tons, barley stock of pigs is in central Germany and Saxony, in Westphalia, on to 3,102,883 tons, and oats to 7,160,883 tons. But, in spite of this the lower Rhine, in Lorraine and Hesse. Central Germany (especiconsiderable yield in cereals, Germany cannot cover her home ally Gotha and Brunswick) exports sausages and hams largely, as consumption, and imported on the average of the six years 1900-well as Westphalia, but here again considerable importation takes 1905 about 4 million tons of cereals to supply the deficiency. place from other countries. Goats are found everywhere, but especiThe potato is largely cultivated, not merely for food, but for dis-ally in the hilly districts. Poultry farming is a considerable industry, tillation into spirits. This manufacture is prosecuted especially in the geese of Pomerania and the fowls of Thuringia and Lorraine being eastern Germany. The number of distilleries throughout the in especial favour. Bee-keeping is of considerable importance, German empire was, in 1905-1906, 68,405. The common beet particularly in north Germany and Silesia. On the whole, despite the prosperous condition of the German live-stock farming, the consumption of meat exceeds the amount rendered available by home production, and prices can only be kept down by a steady increase in the imports from abroad. Fisheries.-The German fisheries, long of little importance, have been carefully fostered within recent years. The deep-sea fishing in the North Sea, thanks to the exertions of the German fishing league (Deutscher Fischereiverein) and to government support, is extremely active. Trawlers are extensively employed, and steamers bring the catches directly to the large fish markets at Geestemünde and Altona, whence facilities are afforded by the railways for the rapid transport of fish to Berlin and other centres. The fish mostly caught are cod, haddock and herrings, while Heligoland yields lobsters, and the islands of Föhr, Amrum and Sylt oysters of good quality. The German North Sea fishing fleet numbered in 1905 618 boats, with an aggregate crew of 5441 hands. Equally well developed are the Baltic fisheries, the chief ports engaged in which are Danzig, Eckernförde, Kolberg and Travemünde. The principal catch is haddock and herrings. The catch of the North Sea and Baltic fisheries in 1906 was valued at over £700,000, exclusive of herrings for salting. The fisheries do not, however, supply the demand for fish, and fresh, salt and dried fish is imported largely in excess of the home yield. Mines and Minerals.-Germany abounds in minerals, and the extraordinary industrial development of the country since 1870 is largely due to its mineral wealth. Having left France much behind in this respect, it now rivals Great Britain and the United States. Germany produces more silver than any other European state, and the quantity is annually increasing. It is extracted from the ores in the mines of Freiburg (Saxony), the Harz Mountains, upper Silesia, Merseburg, Aix-la-Chapelle, Wiesbaden and Arnsberg. Gold is found in the sand of the rivers Isar, Inn and Rhine, and also, to a limited extent, on the Harz. The quantity yielded in 1905 was, of silver, about 400 tons of a value of £1,600,000, and gold, about 4 tons, valued at about £548,000. Lead is produced in considerable quantities in upper Silesia, the Harz Mountains, in the Prussian province of Nassau, in the Saxon Erzgebirge and in the Sauerland. The yield in 1905 amounted to about 153,000 tons, of which 20,000 tons were exported. Copper is found principally in the Mansfeld district of the Prussian province of Saxony and near Arnsberg in the Sauerland, the ore yielding 31.713 tons in 1905, of which 5000 tons were exported. About 90% of the zinc produced in Europe is yielded by Belgium and Germany. It is mostly found in upper Silesia, around Beuthen, and in the districts of Wiesbaden and Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1905 no less than 198,000 tons of block zinc were produced, of which 16,500 tons were exported. Coal. Of other minerals (with the exceptions of coal, iron and salt treated below) nickel and antimony are found in the upper Harz; cobalt in the hilly districts of Hesse and the Saxon Erzgebirge; arsenic in the Riesengebirge; quicksilver in the Sauerland and in the spurs of the Saarbrücken coal hills; graphite in Bavaria; porcelain clay in Saxony and Silesia; amber along the whole Baltic coast; and lime and gypsum in almost all parts. Coal-mining appears to have been first practised in the 14th century at Zwickau (Saxony) and on the Ruhr. There are six large coal fields, occupying an area of about 3600 sq. m., of which the most important occupies the basin of the Ruhr, its extent being estimated at 2800 sq. m. Here there are more than 60 beds, of a total thickness of 150 to 200 ft. of coal; and the amount in the pits has been estimated at 45.000 millions of tons. Smaller fields are found near Osnabrück, Ibbenbüren and Minden, and a larger one near Aix-la-Chapelle. The Saar coal-field, within the area enclosed by the rivers Saar, Nahe and Blies (460 sq. m.). is of great importance. The thickness of 80 beds amounts to 250 ft., and the total mass of coal is estimated at 45.400 million tons. The greater part of the basin belongs to Prussia, the rest to Lorraine. A still larger field exists in the upper Silesian basin, on the borderland between Austria and Poland, containing about 50,000 million tons. Beuthen is the chief centre. The Silesian coal-fields have a second centre in Waldenburg, east of the Riesengebirge. The Saxon coal-fields stretch eastwards for some miles from Zwickau. Deposits of less consequence are found in upper Bavaria, upper Franconia, Baden, the Harz and elsewhere. The following table shows the rapidly increasing development of the coal production. That of lignite is added, the provinces of Saxony and Brandenburg being rich in this product Production of Coal and Lignite. This production permits a considerable export of coal to the west and south of the empire, but the distance from the coal-fields to the German coast is such that the import of British coal cannot yet be dispensed with (1905, over 7,000,000 tons). Besides this, from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 tons of lignite come annually from Bohemia. In north Germany peat is also of importance as a fuel; the area of the peat moors in Prussia is estimated at 8000 sq. m., of which 2000 are in the north of Hanover. The iron-fields of Germany fall into three main groups: those of the lower Rhine and Westphalia, of which Dortmund and Düsseldorf are the centres; those of Lorraine and the Saar; and those of upper Silesia. The output of the ore has enormously increased of recent years, and the production of pig iron, as given for 1905, amounted to 10,875.000 tons of a value of £28,900,000. Germany possesses abundant salt deposits. The actual production not only covers the home consumption, but also allows a yearly increasing exportation, especially to Russia, Austria and Scandinavia. The provinces of Saxony and Hanover, with Thuringia and Anhalt. produce half the whole amount. A large salt-work is found at Strzalkowo (Posen), and smaller ones near Dortmund, Lippstadt and Minden (Westphalia). In south Germany salt abounds most in Württemberg (Hall, Heilbronn, Rottweil); the principal Bavarian works are at the foot of the Alps near Freilassing and Rosenheim. Hesse and Baden, Lorraine and the upper Palatinate have also saltworks. The total yield of mined salt amounted in 1905 to 6,209,000 tons, including 1,165,000 tons of rock salt. The production has made great advance, having in 1850 been only 5 million cwts. manufacturing industry made such rapid strides within recent Manufactures. In no other country of the world has the years as in Germany. This extraordinary development of industrial energy embraces practically all classes of manufactured articles. In a general way the chief manufactures may be geographically distributed as follows. Prussia, Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria and Saxony are the chief seats of the iron manufacture. Steel is produced in Rhenish Prussia. Saxony is predominant in the production of textiles, though Silesia and Westphalia manufacture linen. Cotton goods are largely produced in Baden, Bavaria, Alsace-Lorraine and Württemberg, woollens and worsteds in Saxony and the Rhine province, silk in Rhenish Prussia (Elberfeld), Alsace and Baden. Glass and porcelain in Bremen and Hamburg, chemicals in the Prussian province are largely produced in Bavaria, lace in Saxony; tobacco of Saxony, watches in Saxony (Glashütte) and Nuremberg, toys in Bavaria; gold and silver filagree in Berlin and Aschaffenburg; and beer in Bavaria and Prussia. It is perhaps more in respect of its iron industry than of its other manufactures that Germany has attained a leading position in the markets of the world. Its chief centres are in Westphalia and the Rhine province (auf roter Erde), in upper Silesia, in Alsace-Lorraine and in Saxony. Of the total production industry. of pig iron in 1905 amounting to over 10,000,000 tons, more than the half was produced in the Rhineland and Westphalia. Huge blast furnaces are in constant activity, and the output of rolled iron and steel is constantly increasing. In the latter the greatest advance has been made. The greater part of it is produced at or around Essen, where are the famous Krupp works, and Bochum. Many states have been for a considerable time supplied by Krupp with steel guns and battleship plates. The export of steel (railway) rails and bridges from this part is steadily on the increase. Hardware also, the production of which is centred in Solingen, Heilbronn, Esslingen, &c., is largely exported. Germany stands second to Great Britain in the manufacture of machines and engines. There are in many large cities of north Germany extensive establishments for this purpose, but the industry is not limited to the large cities. In agricultural machinery Germany is a serious competitor with England. The locomotives and wagons for the German railways are almost exclusively built in Germany; and Russia, as well as Austria, receives large supplies of railway plant from German works In shipbuilding, likewise, Germany is practically independent. yards having been established for the construction of the largest vessels. Cotton and textiles. Before 1871 the production of cotton fabrics in France exceeded that in Germany, but as the cotton manufacture is pursued largely in Alsace, the balance is now against the former country. In 1905 there were about 9,000,000 spindles in Germany. The export of the goods manufactured amounted in this year to an estimated value of £19,600,000. Cotton spinning and weaving are not confined to one district, but are prosecuted in upper Alsace (Mülhausen, Gebweiler, Colmar), in Saxony (Zwickau, Chemnitz, Annaberg), in Silesia (Breslau, Liegnitz), in the Rhine province (Düsseldorf, Münster, Cologne), in Erfurt and Hanover, in Württemberg (Reutlingen, Cannstatt), in Baden, Bavaria (Augsburg, Bamberg, Bayreuth) and in the Palatinate. Although Germany produces wool, flax and hemp, the home production of these materials is not sufficient to meet the demand of manufactures, and large quantities of them have to be imported. In 1895 almost a million persons (half of them women) were employed in this branch of industry, and in 1897 the value of the cloth, buckskin and flannel manufacture was estimated at £18,000,000. The chief seats of this manufacture are the Rhenish districts of Aix-la-Chapelle, Düren, Eupen and Lennep, Brandenburg, Saxony, Silesia and lower Lusatia, the chief centres in this group being Berlín, Cottbus, Spremberg, Sagan and Sommerfeld. The manufacture of woollen and half-woollen dress materials centres mainly in Saxony, Silesia, the Rhine province and in Alsace. Furniture covers, table covers and plush are made in Elberfeld and Chemnitz, in Westphalia and the Rhine province (notably in Elberfeld and Barmen); shawls in Berlin and the Bavarian Vogtland; carpets in Berlin, Barmen and Silesia. In the town of Schmiedeberg in the last district, as also in Cottbus (Lusatia), oriental patterns are successfully imitated. The chief seats of the stocking manufacture are Chemnitz and Zwickau in Saxony, and Apolda in Thuringia. The export of woollen goods from Germany in 1905 amounted to a value of £13,000,000. Although linen was formerly one of her most important articles of manufacture, Germany is now left far behind in this industry by Great Britain, France and Austria-Hungary. This branch of textile manufacture has its principal centres in Silesia, Westphalia, Saxony and Württemberg, while Hirschberg in Silesia, Bielefeld in Westphalia and Zittau in Saxony are noted for the excellence of their productions. The goods manufactured, now no longer, as formerly, coarse in texture, vie with the finer and more delicate fabrics of Belfast. In the textile industry for flax and hemp there were, in 1905, 276,000 fine spindles, 22,300 hand-looms and 17,600 power-looms in operation, and, in 1905, linen and jute materials were exported of an estimated value of over £2,000,000. The jute manufacture, the principal centres of which are Berlin, Bonn, Brunswick and Hamburg, has of late attained considerable dimensions. Raw silk can scarcely be reckoned among the products of the empire, and the annual demand has thus to be provided for by importation. The main centre of the silk industry is Crefeld and its neighbourhood; then come Elberfeld and Barmen, Aix-la-Chapelle, as well as Berlin, Bielefeld, Chemnitz, Stuttgart and the district around Mülhausen in Alsace. The manufacture of paper is prosecuted almost everywhere in the empire. There were 1020 mills in operation in 1895, and the exports in 1905 amounted to more than £3,700,000 sterling, as Paper. against imports of a value of over £700,000. The manufacture is carried on to the largest extent in the Rhine province, in Saxony and in Silesia. Wall papers are produced chiefly in Rhenish Prussia, Berlin and Hamburg; the finer sorts of letter-paper in Berlin, Leipzig and Nuremberg; and printing-paper (especially for books) in Leipzig, Berlin and Frankfort-on-Main." The chief seat of the leather industry is Hesse-Darmstadt, in which Mainz and Worms produce excellent material. In Prussia large factories are in operation in the Rhine province, in Westphalia and Silesia (Bricg). Boot and shoe manufactures are carried on everywhere; but the best goods are produced by Mainz and Pirmasens. Gloves for export are extensively made in Württemberg, and Offenbach and Aschaffenburg are renowned for fancy leather wares, such as purses, satchels and the like. Leather. Berlin and Mainz are celebrated for the manufacture of furniture; Bavaria for toys; the Black Forest for clocks; Nuremberg for pencils; Berlin and Frankfort-on-Main for various perfumes; and Cologne for the famous cau-de-Cologne. Beer. The beetroot sugar manufacture is very considerable. It centres mainly in the Prussian province of Saxony, where Magdeburg is the chief market for the whole of Germany, in Anhalt, BrunsSugar. wick and Silesia. The number of factories was, in 1905, 376, and the amount of raw sugar and molasses produced amounted to 2,643,531 metric tons, and of refined sugar 1,711,063 tons. Beer is produced throughout the whole of Germany. The production is relatively greatest in Bavaria. The Brausteuergebiet (beer excise district) embraces all the states forming the Zollverein, with the exception of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine, in which countries the excise duties are separately collected. The total number of breweries in the beer excise district was, in 1905-1906, 5995, which produced 1017 million gallons; in Bavaria nearly 6000 breweries with 392 million gallons; in Baden over 700 breweries with 68 million gallons; in Württemberg over 5000 breweries with 87 million gallons; and in AlsaceLorraine 95 breweries with about 29 million gallons. The amount brewed per head of the population amounted, in 1905, roughly to 160 imperial pints in the excise district; to 450 in Bavaria; 280 in Württemberg; 260 in Baden; and 122 in Alsace-Lorraine. It may be remarked that the beer brewed in Bavaria is generally of darker colour than that produced in other states, and extra strong brews are exported largely into the beer excise district and abroad. Commerce. The rapid development of German trade dates from the Zollverein (customs union), under the special rules and regulations of which it is administered. The Zollverein emanates from a convention originally entered into, in 1828, between Prussia and Hesse, which, subsequently joined by the Bavarian customs-league, by the kingdom of Saxony and the Thuringian states, came into operation, as regards the countries concerned, on the 1st of January 1834. territorial extensions during the ensuing fifty years, and embracWith progressive ing the grand-duchy of Luxemburg, it had in 1871, when the German empire was founded, an area of about 209,281 sq. m., with a population of 40,678,000. The last important addition was in October 1888, when Hamburg and Bremen were incorporated. Included within it, besides the grand-duchy of Luxemburg, are the Austrian communes of Jungholz and Mittelberg; while, outside, lie the little free-port territories of Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven and Geestemunde, Heligoland, and small portions of the districts of Constance and Waldshut, lying on the Baden Swiss frontier. Down to 1879 Germany was, in general, a free-trade country. In this year, however, a rigid protective system was introduced by the Zolltarifgesetz, since modified by the commercial treaties between Germany and Austria-Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, of the 1st of February 1892, and by a customs tariff law of the 25th of December 1902. The foreign commercial relations of Germany were again altered by the general and conventional customs tariff, which came into force on the 1st of March 1906. The Zolltarifgesetz of the 15th of July 1879, while restricting the former free import, imposed considerable duties. Exempt from duty were now only refuse, raw products, scientific instruments, ships and literary and artistic objects; forty-four articles notably beer, vinegar, sugar, herrings, cocoa, salt, fish oils, ether, alum and soda-were unaffected by the change, while duties were henceforth levied upon a large number of articles which had previously been admitted duty free, such as pig iron, machines and locomotives, grain, building timber, tallow, horses, cattle and sheep; and, again, the tariff law further increased the duties leviable upon numerous other articles. Export duties were abolished in 1865 and transit dues in 1861. The law under which Great Britain enjoyed the "most favoured nation treatment "expired on the 31st of December 1905, but its provisions were continued by the Bundesrat until further notice. The average value of each article is fixed annually in Germany under the direction of the Imperial Statistical Office, by a commission of experts, who receive information from chambers of commerce and other sources. There are separate valuations for imports of crossing the frontier For imports the price does not include and exports. The price fixed is that of the goods at the moment customs duties, cost of transport, insurance, warehousing, &c., incurred after the frontier is passed. For exports, the price includes all charges within the territory, but drawbacks and bounties are not taken into account. The quantities are determined according to obligatory declarations, and, for imports, the fiscal authorities may actually weigh the goods. For packages an official tax is deducted. The countries whence goods are imported and the ultimate destination of exports are registered. The import dues amounted in the year 1906, the first year of the revised tariff, to about £31,639,000, or about 10s. 5d. per head of population. Statistics relating to the foreign trade of the Empire are necessarily imported articles as are liable to duty have, indeed, been known confined to comparatively recent times. The quantities of such for many years; and in 1872 official tables were compiled showing the value both of imports and of exports. But when the results than the exportation, the conviction arose that the valuation of the of these tables proved the importation to be very much greater imports was placed at £173,400,000 and that of the exports at exports was erroneous and below the reality. In 1872 the value of the £124,700,000. In 1905 the figures were imports, £371,000,000, and exports, £292,000,000, including precious metals. Table A following shows the classification of goods adopted before the tariff revision of 1906. From 1907 a new classification has been adopted, and the change thus introduced is so great that it is impossible to make any comparisons between the statistics of years subsequent to and preceding the year 1906. Table B shows imports and exports for 1907 and 1908 according to the new classification adopted. |