COMMERCE. 



349 



The most important commercial cities of England, 

 besides London, are Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull ; 

 the most important manufacturing towns are, Man- 

 chester, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Halifax, 

 Rochdale, &c. In Scotland, the principal commer- 

 cial places are Glasgow, Greenock, Leith, Dundee, 

 and Aberdeen. The foreign trade of Glasgow and 

 Greenock extends to the West Indies, the United 

 States, the British American colonies, Brazil, and 

 the whole continent of Europe. The foreign trade 

 of Leith, Dundee, and Aberdeen, extends to the 

 West Indies, America, the Mediterranean and the 

 Baltic. The greatest commercial cities of Ireland 

 are Dublin, Cork, Wexford, Waterford, and Belfast. 



Germany. On account of its navigable rivers, the 

 commerce of this country is considerable. The chief 

 articles of export are linen, linen-yarn, raw wool, 

 rags, quicksilver, corn, timber, flax, hemp, wax, lard, 

 salt, wine, and metals. Its imports are woollens, 

 cottons, and silks, hardware, watches, tanned leather, 

 leather goods, tea, cocoa, dye-woods, hides, colonial 

 and East India goods. The principal ports of Ger- 

 many are Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, Trieste, and 

 Dantzic. In the interior, its chief commercial cities 

 are Vienna, Magdeburg, Leipsic, Frankfort on the 

 Maine, Frankfort on the Oder, Augsburg, Berlin, 

 Breslau, Cologne, Nuremberg, Brunswick, Mentz, 

 Botzen, and Prague. Hamburg (q. v.), in particular, 

 is the channel through which flows, for the most part, 

 the extensive trade oetween Great Britain and the 

 German states. By means of the rivers running 

 into the Elbe, the navigation of which has lately be- 

 come free, the numerous and valuable productions of 

 Upper and Lower Saxony, of Austria, and Bohemia, 

 go to Hamburg. By the Havel, the Spree, and the 

 Oder, its commercial operations are extended to Bran- 

 denburg, Silesia, Moravia, and Poland. The busi- 

 ness of Hamburg consists, in part, of the consign- 

 ments of foreign merchants, and, to a great extent, 

 of the purchase and sale of domestic and foreign 

 goods. Its money transactions are very considerable. 

 Bremen has important articles of export in the pro- 

 ducts of Westphalia and Lower Saxony, which it 

 sends to England, Spain, and Portugal ; and with 

 America it has more intercourse than any other sea- 

 port of Germany. The trade in linens, which for- 

 eign countries carry on with Germany, passes wholly 

 through the hands of the Hamburg and Bremen mer- 

 chants, to whom all foreign orders are directed. The 

 importation of tobacco from America into Germany 

 is almost wholly through Bremen. Leipsic, the 

 centre of European trade with the interior of Ger- 

 many, and the place of deposit for foreign and Saxon 

 goods, has, besides other mercantile privileges, three 

 fairs, at Easter, Michaelmas, and new year, to which 

 merchants resort from all parts of Europe, and from 

 Asia, and each of which lasts three weeks : there 

 is, besides, at this place, a considerable market for 

 Saxon wool. The chief articles of traffic are Bohe- 

 mian, Silesian, and Saxon linen ; leather hides, wax, 

 and wool, from Poland ; woollen goods and pigments, 

 from Prussia ; silks, velvets, and corals, from Italy ; 

 leather, various manufactures, and dye-stuffs, from 

 Austria and Hungary; laces, silk goods of all kinds, 

 ribbons, porcelain, watches, bronze, and other ma- 

 nufactures, including fancy articles, from France; 

 leather, hemp, and flax, from Russia ; colonial com- 

 modities and manufactures, from England and Hol- 

 land; and literary productions from all Europe. 

 There is, also, in Leipsic, an important horse mar- 

 ket. Augsburg, by means of its agents and bankers, 

 is the medium of mercantile communication between 

 Germany and the south of Europe. The exchange 

 business of Vienna is commonly transacted by drafts 

 on Augsburg. It also derives considerable advantage 



from the forwarding of goods, to and from Italy. 

 Frankfort on the Maine, a place of great commercial 

 activity, especially at the time of its two great fairs, 

 in the spring and autumn, has, besides, a very impor- 

 tant business, owing to the opulence of its old and 

 new banking houses. It was the central point of all 

 the Rothschilds. In Brunswick, considerable busi- 

 ness is transacted in its natural productions, and 

 manufactured articles, as well as in foreign goods. 

 Its two great yearly fairs rank immediately after those 

 of Leipsic and Frankfort. Great quantities of raw 

 tliread are sent thither by the Dutch merchants, and 

 the strong beer, called mum, is exported to various 

 parts of the world. 



Austria is entirely separated from Germany by its 

 system of imposts, and its commercial regulations. 

 Its trade is mostly carried on by land, or on the 

 rivers. Vienna, the store-house of the inland trade 

 of all Austria, has quite an extensive commerce with 

 Britain, the Netherlands, and France, and impor- 

 tant dealings with Italy, Hungary, Poland, and Tur- 

 key. By the way of Vienna, Germany receives great 

 quantities of raw cotton from Turkey. The com 

 merce of Trieste, in the Littorale, consists chiefly in 

 the exportation of German productions, and of co- 

 lonial goods, which go from thence to the Levant, 

 and the coasts of the Black sea. Trieste may be re- 

 garded as the depot of the productions of the Levant. 

 It is, also, actively engaged in the importation of 

 British wares, and of the produce of the fisheries of 

 Newfoundland. Except this city, the commerce of 

 Austria is confined to Venice and Fiume. The most 

 considerable places of inland trade in the monarchy, 

 besides Vienna, are Lemberg, Prague, Brunn, Brody, 

 Botzen, Pest, and Cronstadt. The allowed imports 

 consist mainly of raw produce, cotton and wool, silk, 

 rice, oil, spices, colonial articles, leather, cattle, &c. 

 The articles of export are woollen cloths, linens, 

 cordage, mineral productions, grain, and glass. Great 

 profit is derived from the transportation of goods, es- 

 pecially of those of the Levant. In Bohemia, far 

 the greater portion of the trade is in the hands of the 

 Jews, who are numerous in the country. The trade 

 is chiefly in exports linens, woollens, silks, dye- 

 wood, leather, and glass. The glass is superior in 

 polish and cheapness to that of other countries, and 

 the exportation of it is very considerable. It is 

 thought that the goods exported to Spain, Russia, the 

 Levant, and America, amount to 2,500,000 gilders, 

 annually. The countries with which Bohemia has 

 the most commercial intercourse are Austria, Hol- 

 land, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Turkey. The ex 

 ports are rated at above, a million pounds, and the 

 imports (colonial goods, articles of luxury, &c.) at 

 sometliing less. Prague is the first commercial city 

 of the country, Reichenberg, the second. 



Prussia has likewise, by its system of prohibition, 

 been separated from Germany with respect to free 

 commercial intercourse, especially since 1818. The 

 commerce of this monarchy is promoted by the Bal- 

 tic, by many navigable rivers, and by canals. The 

 commerce in domestic productions is more important 

 than the transportation and commission trade, which 

 flourishes mainly in Cologne, Magdeburg, Stettin. 

 Minden, Dantzic, Konigsberg, Breslau, &c. Tin; 

 exports by sea are grain, wax, tallow, wool, linseed, 

 flax, hemp, wood, linen, yarn, woollen, and cotton 

 goods, fine works of art, including articles made of 

 amber. Of the different commercial places, Frank- 

 fort on the Oder has three considerable fairs. Mag- 

 deburg sends corn, linen, cotton goods, cloths, leatli- 

 er, salt and copper to Hamburg, and to the fairs of 

 Leipsic and Brunswick. It has, besides, a transit 

 trade in colonial goods, wine, grain, &c. Wheat is 

 exported from Dantzic, which possesses the largest 



