180 



COMMEKOE, INTEKNATIO^AL. 



products, vegetable fibers, resins and oils, and 

 provisions. Among the exports the articles 

 showing the largest increase were vegetable 

 fibers, machinery, iron products, iron and steel, 

 zinc, the different textiles, and various other 

 manufactures. 



The fatal marasmus of contracting com- 

 merce and industrial stagnation has afflicted 

 Germany, perhaps, more severely and calami- 

 tously than any other country. The depres- 

 sion set in very early in the country of the 

 milliards, and was by many attributed to the 

 reaction from the over-speculation excited by 

 the influx of the French gold ; now many at- 

 tribute it to the effect on values of the change 

 to a gold standard which the receipt of the 

 vast sum of indemnity enabled the German 

 Government to accomplish. The Government 

 has recently appointed commissions to inquire 

 into the causes of the continued commercial 

 depression, from whose deliberations projects 

 for its relief and remedy are hopefully awaited. 



The German Government has lately aban- 

 doned the practice of reporting the value of 



the imports and exports, and published simply 

 the quantities. The estimated value of the im- 

 ports and exports of 1878, compared with the 

 values reported in the two preceding years, 

 indicate an intensified prostration of commerce 

 and industry. The total value of the imports 

 of 1876 was 3,913,300,000 marks, and of 1877, 

 3,877,000,000 marks ; estimated value of the 

 imports of 1878, 3,343,700,000 marks. The 

 total exports in 1876 amounted 2,484,700,000 

 marks; in 1877, to 2,716,100,000 marks; in 

 1878 their computed value is 2,360,700,000 

 marks. The subjoined table exhibits the move- 

 ment for the three separate years in the chief 

 classes of commodities. The increase made in 

 the importations of the year 1878 under the 

 heads of tobacco and machinery is ascribable to 

 the prospect of tariff reforms. The table gives 

 the complete returns for the first two years, 

 but only the estimates, based on the quantities 

 which passed the borders, for the year 1878. 

 Four marks are approximately equal to one 

 dollar, and a centner is equal to a cwt. of 112 

 Ibs. 



The German Government, impelled on the 

 one hand by the prostration of industry and 

 commerce and the widespread distress among 

 the working people to adopt some extraor- 

 dinary measure of relief, and actuated on the 

 other hand by its own pressing need of an in- 

 creased revenue which shall not depend on the 

 doubtful vote of the Parliament, in order to 

 carry out the policy to which it has committed 

 itself, saw fit to abandon its free-trade princi- 

 ples, and drew up a reformed tariff of a highly 

 protective nature, which has lately been ac- 

 cepted by the Parliament. This tariff proposes 



to raise from 88 to 120 million marks of ad- 

 ditional revenue from supplementary duties, 

 which are to be imposed to the amount of 

 29 to 37 millions on objects already dutiable, 

 and new duties amounting to from 59 to 84 

 million marks to be levied on imports which 

 have been before exempt. Of the new reve- 

 nue, 35 to 43 millions is purely fiscal in its 

 character, being imposed on petroleum to the 

 amount of from 20 to 25 millions, and on arti- 

 cles of luxury, with the exception of beer and 

 tobacco, to the amount of from 15 to 17 mil- 

 lions. The remainder of the new revenue is 



