GERMANY. 



325 



Germany was the law on the new coinage 

 which the Reichstag adopted for the purpose 

 of carrying ont the law of December 4, 1871. 

 The chief provisions of the latter were : 1. An 

 imperial gold coin will be struck, of which 139 J 

 pieces will contain a pound of tine gold. 2. 

 The tenth part of this gold coin will be named 

 a "mark," and be divided into one hundred 

 pfennigs. 3. Besides the imperial gold coin 

 of ten marks, there shall also be struck im- 

 perial gold coins of twenty marks, 69} pieces 

 of which will contain a pound of fine gold. 

 4. The mixture of alloy in the coins will be 

 fixed in the proportion of 900 parts gold to 100 

 parts copper. Accordingly, 125, 55 ten-mark 

 pieces, and 62,,, 5 twenty -mark pieces, will 

 respectively weigh a pound. The imperial gold 

 coins bear upon the one side the imperial eagle, 

 with the inscription "Deutsches Reich," and 

 a statement of the value in marks, as well as 

 the year of the coinage ; on the other side, the 

 likeness of the sovereign princes, or the sym- 

 bols of sovereignty of the free towns, with a 

 corresponding device. 6. All payments which 

 by existing law are made in silver money of 

 thaler currency, of South-German currency, of 

 Lubeck or Hamburg customary currency, or in 

 thaler of the Bremen gold reckoning, may be 

 effected in the imperial gold coins, reckoned 

 the ten-mark piece for the value of 3J thaler, 

 or 5 fl. 60 kreuzer of South-German currency, 

 or 8 mark 5J- shilling of the Lubeck and Ham 

 burg currency, or Sfa thaler of the Bremen 

 gold reckoning; the twenty-mark piece, for 

 the value of 6f thaler, or 11 fl. 40 kreuzer of 

 South-German currency, or 16 mark lOf shil- 

 ling of the Lubeck and Hamburg currency, or 

 tiff thaler of the Bremen gold reckoning. 7. 

 The coinage of other gold coins besides those 

 introduced by this law, as well as of large 

 silver coins, with the exception of memorial 

 medals, is prohibited. 8. The gold coins now 

 current in the States of Germany will be with- 

 drawn for the account and at the cost of the 

 empire in proportion to the issue of the new 

 coins. The total amount of the new gold 

 coinage produced by the mint, partly in twenty- 

 mark, partly in ten-mark pieces, up to March 

 15, 1873, was, according to a statement of the 

 federal Commissioner Michaelis, 581,200,000 

 marks; the larger portion of the former gold 

 coins has already been withdrawn. Of silver 

 coins, there are to be coined about 400,000,000 

 marks, namely, 50,000,000 five-mark pieces, 

 150,000,000 one-mark pieces, 100,000,000 one- 

 half-mark pieces, 100,000,000 one-fifth-mark 

 pieces. Of nickel and copper coins about 

 100,000,000 are to be coined. 



The Reichstag ratified a new commercial 

 treaty which had been concluded with Persia. 

 The Chancellor of the Empire, on this occa- 

 sion, declared it to be necessary that Germany 

 should in future be more effectually represent- 

 ed in Persia by an ambassador and by consuls. 

 The Shah, he stated, during his recent stay in 

 Berlin, had expressed a wish for closer con- 



nection between the two empires, and had 

 announced the establishment of a permanent 

 Persian embassy in Berlin. In presenting the 

 budget for the year 1874, the President of the 

 Imperial Chancery made interesting state- 

 ments on the indemnity paid by France. The 

 total amount, inclusive of interest, the con- 

 tributions of Paris, etc., and exclusive of the 

 amount deducted on account of the railroads 

 of Alsace-Lorraine, was 1,395,000,000 thaler. 

 Of this sum, 655,000,000 will be expended for 

 common disbursements of the empire, and 740,- 

 000,000 will be distributed among the States ; 

 namely, 596,000,000 among the States of the 

 former North-German Confederation, and 144,- 

 '000,000 among the South-German States. Of 

 that portion which falls to the North-German 

 Confederation, a number of common expendi- 

 tures are likewise to be met ; the amount which 

 would actually be distributed was estimated 

 at about 150,000,000 thalers. With regard to 

 the actual revenues and expenditures of the 

 empire during the year 1872, it had been found 

 that the actual revenue exceeded the estimate 

 by 14,625,000 thalers, and the actual expendi- 

 tures fell below the estimate by 91,000, giving 

 a surplus of 14,716,000 thalers. 



The proposition of the Federal Council, that 

 the constitution of the empire shall take effect 

 in Alsace and Lorraine on January 1, 1874, 

 was acceded to by the Reichstag. Henceforth 

 all laws for Alsace-Lorraine require the co- 

 operation of the Reichstag, though in cases of 

 emergencies the Emperor may issue decrees 

 with the consent of the Federal Council. The 

 Reichstag rejected only one provision of the 

 draft by which those inhabitants of Alsace and 

 Lorraine who had expressly declared that they 

 wished to remain French citizens and had re- 

 mained in the Reichsland, in all about 120,000, 

 were excluded from the right of voting as long 

 as they would not withdraw their "option." 

 It was hoped that this element of the popula- 

 tion might more easily be reconciled to Ger- 

 many if it was allowed to take part in all the 

 rights of German citizens. 



The majority of the Reichstag adhered to 

 its former votes on the question of a compen- 

 sation for its members. A motion to that 

 effect by Schulze-Delitzsch and others was 

 again opposed by Bismarck, but adopted by 

 145 against 85 votes. The important motion 

 by Lasker for extending the legislation of the 

 empire over the entire civil law was again 

 adopted by a large majority. The deputy Wil- 

 mans, in the name of .the Right, and the dep- 

 uty Ackermann, for himself and his Saxon 

 friends, declared that they receded from their 

 opposition to the law, and the President of 

 the Imperial Chancery announced that the 

 adoption of the law by a constitutional ma- 

 jority of the Federal Council was fully se- 

 cured. A motion for the establishment, of a 

 representation of the people with constitution- 

 al rights in all the States of the German Em- 

 pire was adopted by 174 against 62 votes. 



