contracting parties, there shall be allowed the term of six months to the merchants residing on the coast, and one year to those residing in the interior of the states and territories of each other respectively, to arrange their business, dispose of their effects, or transport them wheresoever they may please, giving them a safe conduct to protect them to the port they may designate. Those citizens who may be established in the states and territories aforesaid, exercising any other occupation or trade, shall be permitted to remain in the uninterrupted enjoyment of their liberty and property so long as they conduct themselves peaceably, and do not commit any offence against the laws; and their goods and effects, of whatever class and condition they may be, shall not be subject to any embargo or sequestration whatever, nor to any charge nor tax, other than may be established upon similar goods and effects belonging to the citizens of the state in which they reside respectively; nor shall the debts between individuals, nor moneys in the public funds, or in public or private banks, nor shares in companies, be confiscated, embargoed, or detained.". Art. IV. THE GERMAN ZOLLVEREIN. THE Zollverein came to its present state in the year 1834, and counted then 23,478,120 inhabitants, which number had increased in 1843 to 28,498,625, on a space of 822,157 German square miles, partly from Baden, Brunswick, Frankfort-on-Maine, Luxemburg, and Nassau, joining to the Union, and partly owing to the regular increase of population, viz: Prussia, (including Luxemburg). Bavaria,.... 15,967,879 4,444,918 1,332,317 719,320 844,655 974,184 239,744 412,271 65,831 28,498,625 No new state has joined the Union since 1842. The increase of population within the Union is, when no new state joins, half a million a year. The population may, therefore, now be taken at thirty millions. The duty system is the same as Prussia had in 1818, in which nothing was prohibited, and a duty of not more than 10 per cent levied on the value, after which, at that time, the duty was charged on the weight. Since then, however, the prices of most goods have fallen so low that the common articles of several branches cannot be imported any longer, and others pay a duty of 20, and even 100 per cent on their value, arising from the duty being levied on the weight. Prussia is the leading power of the Union, but cannot undertake any. thing without the sanction of the other powers. To carry a resolution, it is necessary that all agree. Deputies of the eleven powers meet every three years, to consider and discuss matters principally relating to the tariff, which, after this, is good for three years. In extraordinary cases, however, special meetings may be called in the interim. The duty of the principal articles is-cotton yarn, 2 dollars, (1 dollar equal to 30 silbergroschen ;) 10 silbergroschen (equal to one shilling 256 sterling,) per cwt. 50 kilogr.; warps, 3 dollars; cottons, 50 dollars; leaden wares, 10 dollars; pig iron, old broken iron, 10 silbergroschen; wrought iron, 1 dollar 15 silbergroschen; 2.15 sheet iron, anchors, plates, 3.4 dollars; hardwares and cutlery, 6.50 dollars; glass wares, 4.15-10 dollars; wrought copper, 6 dollars; copper wares, 6.10 dollars; linen yarn, 5 silbergroschen; linen, 11 dollars; wine, 8 dollars; coffee, ginger, pimento, &c., 6 dollars; rice, 2 dollars; tea, 11 dollars; tobacco, in leaves, 5 dollars; in rolls, 11 dollars; cigars, 15 dollars; sugar, refined, 10 dollars, raw, 5 dollars; silk wares, 110 dollars, mixed, 55 dollars; woollen-yarn, 15 silbergroschen; woollens, 30 dollars; printed worsted, 50 dollars; zinc and tin wares, 10 dollars. The clear receipt of customs amounted in the year 1842 to 12,178,761 dollars; 1843, to 22,918,754 dollars; 1844, to 23,970,188 dollars; 1845, to 24,910,545 dollars. The following articles contributed, in per cents, to the amount of import duties: not yet known. not yet known. 322,723 15,987 23,753 1,978 190 1,409,023 not yet known. 2,642 3,151 not yet known. 31,589 6,110 Books, maps, &c.,...... not yet known. 39,706 As many foreign-made goods are bought by foreigners, at the fairs of Brunswick, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and Leipsic, to be taken out of the Union, the import duty on these goods being too high to be paid, and such bond warehouses as are used for sugar, coffee, &c., would not do for manufactured goods, the merchant who deals in foreign articles at the fairs within the Union, has an account at the customhouse, which is debted with the weight of all the goods he imports; when booked, he takes the goods to his warehouse. Whatever he sells for export he must make a declaration of, and the purchaser must take this declaration with the goods to the custom-house. If they are acknowledged to have been imported, they are packed at the custom-house, where there is very good accommodation for them, sealed with lead, and, accompanied by a certificate, sent out of the Union. The custom-house at the frontier, through which the goods pass, attests the exportation, and sends the certificate back, after which the dealer is credited for the weight, only paying a transit duty of half a dollar per cwt. After the fair is over, the stocks in the warehouses of those persons who deal in foreign articles are examined and weighed; the weight of the stock, together with that of the exported goods, is deducted from the weight of the imported goods in the debit of their accounts, and the remainder is supposed to have been sold in the Union, and pays the full amount of duty. This plan has been highly approved of at the fairs. Manufactories have increased considerably in number and in extent within the Union, since 1834; this is to be attributed to the free intercourse of thirty millions of people, which were formerly divided by thirty different duty systems, to the increase of population, and to the waking energy of the manufacturers. In 1834, the cotton mills spun 112,363 cwt. of cotton, but in 1843, they spun 306,731 cwt., which gives an increase of 173 per cent. The importation of cotton in 1844 amounted to 358,727 cwt., and in 1845, to 412,000 cwt.; so that, in these two years, an increase of cotton spinning, amounting to 34 per cent, took place. In 1834, there were 600,000 spindles; this number had increased, in 1837, to 800,000, of which, however, owing to the crisis from 1837 to 1839, only 600,000 could be employed. For the last three years the 800,000 have been again and fully employed, and this number will, in the course of another year, receive an increase of 10 to 12 per cent. Notwithstanding two-thirds of the yarn used up within the Union is foreign-made, the cotton weavers used up, in 1834, 301,038 cwt. of foreign and home-made yarn, and in 1843, 628,867 cwt., an increase of 109 per cent. The importation of cotton goods amounted, in 1834, to 12,442 cwt.; in 1844, to only 8,652 cwt., a falling off of 32 per cent. ports remained the same as before, and were, in 1843, 74,752 cwt. The ex Cwt. In that year was woven yarn,..... 628,867 Of which was exported,. 74,752 There were, therefore, consumed in the Union, of home-made cotton goods, 554,115 8,652 Total consumption,...... 562,767 wherein the home-made amounts to 98 per cent, and the imported to 1 per cent. In 1834 the proportion was as 95 to 5. VOL. XV.-NO. III. 17 This shows that wool spinning has increased exactly 60 per cent within Consequently there was used for weaving within the Union,.... Within the Union, of home-made woollen goods, were consumed Total consumption of woollens within the Union,.... 210,541 370,810 wherein the home-made amounts to 91 per cent, and the imported to 9 per cent. In 1834, the proportion was 94 to 6. Concerning the importation of raw silk, it is only since 1841 that any correct returns have been made. Of silk dyed in the Union and that which is imported dyed, there was woven in 1841, 11,478 cwt.; in 1843, 14,626 cwt., so that there was an increase in this branch, within two years, of 28 per cent. The exportation of silk goods finished within the Union, has, therefore, increased 35 per cent in ten years. The object of Prussia in bringing about the Zollverein, was entirely political. The war, from 1813 to 1815, had placed it in a higher political position than, considering its material powers, it could reasonably have expected. Being difficult to form a resolution to descend from the rank of a grand power, Prussia could not make up its mind to put up with a secondrate power. In order to maintain the former, it was necessary to gain influence over the minor German powers: the only means of obtaining this was by bringing about such a union as, at last, has been accomplished, to the mutual benefit of the powers included in it. The other powers joined merely from motives of commercial economy, because the many restric tions created by the customs were quite insupportable. Financial improvements none of them desired to make, because those that levied no high imposts covered their expenses by other means; and those who levied them were obliged to lose, and did lose, because so many frontiers and custom-houses had been done away with. This was particularly the case with Prussia, having, during the first years, considerably less income. But the free commercial intercourse, being extended over so much space, soon rendered this otherwise; and Prussia's share of the receipts amounts now to more than it did before the union. The people, however, had another object in view, of which the governments did not think they saw that the falling off of these restrictions would cause those of a different nature to fall off more and more, viz., such as those that separated politically the different German tribes. They soon saw that, by the union of so many little German provinces, they could obtain a political standing of some consequence, which the Vienna Congress had overlooked, or would not see. The consequence is, that the German people look upon the union as being much greater in a political point of view than in a commercial, without the latter losing anything of its value from this fact. The union is ratified by public opinion, and forever indissoluble. In the beginning, the consumers naturally disliked the high imposts, i. e., in such countries where they had formerly been lower; not so, however, as may be supposed, the manufacturers. But the scales soon turned; the consumers became accustomed to them, the more so in those countries where the direct taxes had been reduced in consequence of the greater custom revenue; but the manufacturers, in the years 1837-8, were brought to a singular state of excitement, from the appearance of what is called the "national system of political economy," by Dr. List. It is almost incredible how people, such as had had before the union no protection at all, as, for instance, the Saxon manufacturers on the one side, and on the other, the Prussian ones, those who had been for twenty years satisfied with the existing system, did all break out together in loud complaints. This excitement was increased in 1843, by the publication of the Zollvereinsblatt, (paper of the commercial league.) The cotton yarn spinners were particularly the most violent. They all at once entirely forgot that the Saxon spinners had arrived at their present state without any protection at all. It soon became apparent that List had been employed by them, because he only preached protection on cotton yarn, seldom on cottons, never on woollen, linen, or silk goods. In every digression, on every occasion, he always reverts to the spinning of cotton yarn. List is not without talent, but without profound knowledge; he possesses unparalleled assurance, heaps contradiction upon contradiction, and when they are pointed out to him, he makes use of the most ridiculous sophistry, and the commonest abusive language. Every week he is extolling his system in his Zollvereinsblatt, and in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, which is quite taken with him; by these means he has succeeded in prepossessing the whole of south Germany, (Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden,) and even also the consumers, in favor of it; so that there they only see the salvation of Germany in cotton spinning. In the western provinces of Prussia, and in Nassau, his "national system," as it is called, has also many adherents, owing to the number of manufacturers there. But affairs are not so bad here in this respect as is generally supposed abroad, where the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung is principally read, and which favors the |