372 



GERMANY. 



sociation extended, on October 1, 1870, over 

 78 different railroads, of which 49 were Ger- 

 man, 24 Austrian, and 5 belonging to foreign 

 countries. Their total length was 18,412 

 miles. 



The Germ an- Austrian Postal Union com- 

 prises, besides all the German states and Lux- 

 emburg, the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

 In North Germany, since the establishment of 

 the North-German Confederation, all the post- 

 offices are under one central administration, 

 the territory of which extended (in 1868) over 

 an area of 163,473 square miles, with 30,476,036 

 inhabitants. The following is a condensed 

 statement of the post-offices throughout Ger- 

 many. 



With the exception of a few small roads 

 leading from the main lines to private manu- 

 facturing establishments, or to coal and iron 

 mines, all the railroads of Germany, as well as 

 those of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and of 

 the Netherlands, belong to the "Association 

 of German Railroad Companies," which has 

 its centre at Berlin. The territory of the As- 



The number of letters, pamphlets, and news- 

 papers, passing though the post-offices, was as 

 follows : 



Th<3 German- Austrian Telegraph Union ex- 

 tends over all the German states, the Austro- 

 Hungarian mQnarchy, and the Netherlands. 

 The length of telegraph-lines, on January 1, 

 1869, was : In the North-German Confedera- 

 tion, 14,850 miles; length of wire, 48,558 

 miles; in Bavaria, length of lines, 2,491 miles, 

 length of wire, 7,570 miles ; in Wiirtemberg, 

 length of lines, 1,293 miles, length of wire, 

 2,575 miles ; in Baden, length of lines, 1,027 

 miles, length of wire, 2,677 miles. The num- 

 ber of dispatches sent over the various lines in 

 Germany, in 1868, was 8,113,102. 



During the period from 1859 to 1861 the 

 annual consumption of raw cotton averaged 

 1,308,000 hundred-weights net; from 1862 to 

 1865 the annual consumption fell off to 836,000 

 hundred-weights; while from 1866 to 1868 it 

 had again increased to 1,364,000 hundred- 

 weights per annum. The proportion of im- 

 ported yarn to the quantity of yarn manufac- 

 tured in home spinneries, out of the above-men- 

 tioned raw material, was, from 1859 to 1861, 

 44 per cent. ; from 1862 to 1865, 28 per cent. ; 

 from 1866 to 1868. 26 per cent. This shows 

 that the home production of yarn during the 

 latter period has not fallen off in quantity as 

 compared with the most favorable period pre- 

 vious to the cotton crisis, and has had nothing 

 to fear from foreign competition. The export 

 of cotton yarn increased from 20,959 hundred- 

 weights, in 1859, to 69,270 hundred-weights, in 

 1868. For the manufacture of cotton goods, 

 the following quantities of yarn (imported and 

 home made) were absorbed : from 1859 to 1861, 



1,482,000 hundred-weights; from 1862tol8C5, 

 806,000 hundred-weights ; and from 1866 to 

 1868, 1,313,000 hundredweights annually. 

 Thus, while there was a slight diminution in 

 the manufacture of cotton goods, the produc- 

 tion of yarn increased instead of declined. 

 The proportion of cotton consumed in German 

 spinneries to the quantity used in Great Brit- 

 ain was: from 1859 to 1861, 13.7 per cent.; 

 from 1866 to 1868, 15.5 per cent. The total 

 value of the cotton used in the states of the 

 Zollverein during the eight years from 1861 to 

 1868 was estimated at $223,650,000. 



On the 14th of January the North-German 

 Parliament was opened by the King of Prussia, 

 who delivered the following speech from the 

 throne : 



HONORED GENTLEMEN OF THE PARLIAMENT or THE 

 NORTH-GERMAN CONFEDERATION: In the name of the 

 confederate governments I bid you welcome to the last 

 session of the legislative period. In this session you 

 will be called upon to complete and further establish 

 those institutions which have been created with vour 

 cooperation, and have come into existence through the 

 unanimous exertions of the confederate governments. 

 To my great gratification, the devoted labors of those 

 persons who were intrusted with the preparation of a 

 penal code for the North-German Confederacy- have 

 resulted in bringing that important work to such a de- 

 gree of completion that it has already received the ap- 

 proval of the Federal Council, and is ready to be laid 

 before you to-day. While this code perfects the na- 

 tional unity of the North-German Confederation in 

 one of the most important fields of public law, it con- 

 tains at the same time features which show a marked 

 progress upon the penal laws at present in force in the 



* One thaler = 69 cents ; one florin = 40 cents. 



