372 



GERMANY. 



state, the total number of workmen insured 

 was 3,725,313. There were 100,159 accidents 

 during the year, of which 2,716 were fatal, re- 

 quiring 5,935 indemnities to be paid to widows, 

 orphans, and other relatives of the deceased. 

 The total expenditure was about 72 cents per 

 head of the persons insured, and $1.15 on 

 every $250 of wages; but, deducting the costs 

 of institution and the contributions to the 

 reserve fund, the expenditure was 18 cents 

 per capita and 48 cents on every $250 of 

 wages paid. The cost of administration largely 

 exceeded the amount of indemnities paid, but 

 the expense will be less disproportionate after 

 the system is established, and will be partly 

 covered by the interest on the reserve fund. 

 This part of the expenditure is large because 

 the associations have to see to the prevention 

 of accidsnts and the investigation of their 

 nature and causes, not merely to pay indem- 

 nities. The amount paid in indemnities will 

 increase from year to year as new annual 

 allowances are made to injured men and their 

 families, while the cost of administration will 

 remain stationary, or, perhaps, decrease, and 

 therefore the report is considered to be, under 

 all the circumstances, a favorable showing. 



The Incorporation of Hamburg and Bremen. The 

 two chief seaports of Germany remained till 

 1888 outside the customs boundary of the Zoll- 

 verein, which had, however, absorbed the ter- 

 ritorial districts and some of the populous sub- 

 urbs of the old Hanse towns. In October these 

 cities gave up their ancient privileges as free 

 ports and entared the Zollverein, thus render- 

 ing complete the policy of the commercial union 

 of the German states, which was initiated by 

 Prussia sixty years before political union was 

 achieved. Their claim to remain free ports 

 was conceded in 1868, and was ratified in the 

 Imperial Constitution of 1871, although the 

 privilege was in the case of Hamburg restrict- 

 ed to the city and port, and withdrawn from 

 the rest of the state, which extends to the 

 mouth of the Elbe, embracing 160 square 

 miles. It was arranged that the two Hanse 

 towns should remain outside the common cus- 

 toms boundary until they should themselves 

 demand admittance. In 1880 the German 

 Government brought pressure to bear to se- 

 cure the inclusion of Hamburg in the customs 

 league, which was desirable to Germany for 

 political reasons, and still more for commercial 

 reasons, because the 7,000 ships entering the 

 port every year and taking cargoes to the most 

 remote countries of the world, carried, besides 

 German goods, large quantities of the manu- 

 factures of England and other countries, which 

 the Chancellor desired to see displaced by Ger- 

 man products. A project of union was nego- 

 tiated on May 25. 1881, subject to the approval 

 of the Hamburg Legislature. There was much 

 opposition among the citizens, but the Senate 

 agreed to the treaty, which it thought would 

 be beneficial to the commerce of the port. The 

 House of Bnrgosses could not accept that view, 



but ratified the convention on being appealed 

 to for the sacrifice of private and local advan- 

 tage in the interest of national prosperity. The 

 conditions of trade had so changed, however, 

 as to make the isolation for which Hamburg 

 had stood out less desirable to preserve than it 

 was when the city entered the empire. For- 

 merly Hamburg merchants had to depend on 

 British products, for there were but few Ger- 

 man manufactures, but in recent years many 

 of the manufactured articles that are in most 

 demand in neutral markets are produced in 

 Germany more cheaply than in Great Britain. 

 The growth in the trade of the port for the 

 past ten years has been twice as great in Ger- 

 man as it has in British manufactures. The 

 German Chancellor, under these circumstances, 

 could exact the acquiescence of the most un- 

 willing of the burghers by threatening so to 

 build up and favor Altona and Gliicksburg that 

 the German trade would leave Hamburg, and 

 pass through those ports. A small area on the 

 north bank of the Elbe, with the small islands 

 opposite, was still reserved, and the space was 

 subsequently extended, yet it only affords room 

 for mooring vessels to the wharves, and for the 

 erection of warehouses that simply correspond 

 to the bonded warehouses of every customs 

 port. In order to carry into effect the resolu- 

 tion of the Hamburg Government, of June 15, 

 1881, to enter the German customs union, time 

 was required to build warehouses and make 

 quays in that part of the city that is still free 

 frm customs, in order that the important tran- 

 sit and shipping trade might not be lost. It 

 was therefore decided that the resolution should 

 not go into effect till October. 1888. The seven 

 years have been employed in making a great 

 transformation, widening canals, building docks 

 and quays, and erecting in the place of the poor 

 buildings that formerly stood near the water 

 blocks of warehouses that are-as large and fine 

 as can be found in any seaport. The cost of 

 the improvements has been about 160,000,000 

 marks, one fourth of which was defrayed by 

 the Imperial Government. The bill to incor- 

 porate Hamburg in the customs union was 

 passed in 1882 by the Reichstag, notwithstand- 

 ing the vehement opposition of the free-traders 

 in that assembly. The city of Bremen was in 

 like manner induced to join the Zollverein, and 

 the German authorities began the collection of 

 customs duties in both places on the same day, 

 Oct. 17, 1888. A great number of officials visited 

 the citizens and received their declarations as 

 to the possession of dutiable goods. A reason- 

 able amount was allowed to go free, but on ail 

 other goods liable to pay duty the back duties 

 were levied, which were turned into the treas- 

 ury of the Hamburg state, while all duties ac- 

 cruing subsequent to the formal incorporation 

 into the Zollverein belong to the treasury of the 

 empire, in consideration of which Hamburg is 

 relieved from the annual military subsidy of 

 5,000,000 marks that she has paid heretofore. 

 The part of the city on the left bank of the 



