410 



GERMANY. (EMPIRE.) 



Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Hungary ; by sea, 

 with Fnuice, Spain, Portugal, Britain, the Northern 

 states, Italy, Turkey, and America. Its trade by 

 sea is chiefly with Britain, and is more injurious 

 than beneficial to the country. Its great rivers, the 

 Danube, Elbe, Weser, Rhine, Oder, &c., afford 

 great facilities for maritime commerce. The princi- 

 pal of the German exports and imports are men- 

 tioned in the preceding division of this article, re- 

 lating to the geography of Germany. German 

 commerce, at present, is suffering from many causes. 

 America supplies many of the former purchasers in 

 the German market. France no longer wants Ger- 

 man materials, as her own productions have increased 

 five-fold since the revolution. Spain and Portugal 

 are again producing for themselves. The commer- 

 cial policy also of her own and foreign states, has 

 been very injurious to German commerce. The 

 first step was taken by the British act of navigation. 

 Austria and Prussia followed this example. Bavaria, 

 first among the German states of the second rank, 

 did the same. Some other German governments 

 have imposed restrictions on commerce, for the pur- 

 pose of increasing their revenue ; and this system 

 has had the most ruinous effect. If the commerce 

 of the German states, among themselves, should 

 be made free, and if the restrictive system could 

 be turned against Britain and Holland, instead of 

 against each other, Germany, with a population of 

 thirty-four millions, and such an extent of ter- 

 ritory, could supply her own wants. But her 

 internal commerce is burdened with excessive cus- 

 toms. Situated in the midst of the manufacturing 

 states, and those which are in want of manufac- 

 tures, Germany appears fitted to be the market of 

 Europe. At the German fairs, business to the 

 amount of more than ^65,000,000 annually, is trans- 

 acted. They collect persons from all parts of Eu- 

 rope. Those of Frankfort and Leipsic are the most 

 important. The bulk of foreign manufactures, which 

 they bring into Germany, is again exported. The 

 trade in French silks is almost exclusively in the 

 hands of German merchants, and the commerce in 

 British manufactures employs many hands, and in- 

 creases the national revenue. The northern purchas- 

 ers at the fairs also supply articles which serve as 

 the materials of an intermediate trade with France, 

 Switzerland, and Italy. The prospects of German 

 commerce, at present, are discouraging, unless a free 

 intercourse between the states of the federation, a 

 better economy in the governments, so as to leave 

 more capital to the trading classes, and a better sys- 

 tem of political regulations with regard to commerce, 

 be established. 



German Empire. The German empire was formed 

 by the dismemberment of the Prankish monarchy, by 

 the treaty of Verdun, in 843. Otho the Great added 

 the kingdom of Italy (,961), and united the Roman 

 imperial crown with the German empire (962), which 

 was thenceforward called the Holy Roman empire of 

 Germany. The Italian states were not, however, 

 members of the German empire, but merely feudal 

 dependencies. The public deliberations of the em- 

 peror witli the imperial estates in the diets, produced 

 the fundamental laws of the empire, which, besides 

 immemorial customs, included, 1. the perpetual 

 peace of the empire of 1495 ; 2. the golden bull 

 (q. v.) of 1356 ; 3. the decrees of the diets ; 4. the 

 electoral capitulations ; 5. the treaty of Passau, of 

 1552, or, rather, the religious peace of Augsburg, 

 founded on that treaty ; 6. the peace of Westphalia 

 of 1648. In 1500, Maximilian I. and the estates 

 divided Germany into the six circles of Franconia, 

 Bavaria, Suabia, the Upper Rhine, Westphalia, and 

 Saxony; which, in 1512, were increased to ten, by 



the addition of Austria and Burgundy, and the forma- 

 tion of two new circles out of the territories of the 

 four electors on the Rhine and the two Saxon electors. 

 Lusatia, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia, Montbelliard, 

 were not comprehended in this division. Each circle 

 was governed by a prince, who assembled the estates, 

 and was commander-in-chief of the forces. A fter the 

 death of Charles the Fat (888), Germany became an 

 elective monarchy. The emperors were at first 

 elected by all the estates, spiritual and temporal, in 

 common; but, during the interregnum (1197 1272), 

 the arch-officers of the empire assumed the exclusive 

 right of choice, which was confirmed by the golden 

 bull of Charles IV. in 1356. The elector of Mentz 

 summoned the electoral princes to the election at 

 Frankfort on the Maine. The electors appeared in 

 person, or by ambassadors, but were allowed to be 

 followed only by a small suite. All foreigners, and 

 even foreign ambassadors, were obliged to leave the 

 city on the day of the election. The emperor swore to 

 observe the elective capitulation (^^Capitulation}, and 

 was then proclaimed. The coronation took place at 

 first in Aix-la-Chapelle, but afterwards at Frankfort. 

 In case of the decease, minority, or long absence 

 of the emperor, the elector of Saxony and the elector 

 of the Palatinate were vicars over the greatest part 

 of the empire ; but Austria and Bavaria could not be 

 governed by a vicar. The estates of the empire, or 

 those immediate members who had a seat and vote 

 in the diet, were either spiritual, viz. the ecclesiasti- 

 cal electors, the archbishops, prelates, abbots, abbes- 

 ses, the grand master of the Teutonic order, and the 

 grand master of the knights of St John ; or temporal, 

 viz. the secular electors, dukes, princes, landgraves, 

 margraves, burgraves, counts, and the imperialcities. 

 After the peace of Westphalia, the estates were divid- 

 ed into the Protestant and the Catholic (see Corpus 

 Catholicorum) . The immediate nobility of the em- 

 pire did not belong to the estates of the empire. 

 They were divided into the Franconian, Suabian, and 

 Rhenish circles, with courts of judicature, and had 

 the right of sending deputies to the diet. The em- 

 peror summoned annually two regular diets (besides 

 the extraordinary meetings), which were held at 

 Ratisbon, and, together with the emperor, exercised 

 all the prerogatives of sovereignty, levying taxes, 

 making laws, declaring war, and making peace. 

 There were three chambers : 1. that of the electors; 

 2. that of the princes, which was divided into the 

 spiritual and temporal benches (the Protestant bishops 

 of Osnabruck, and Lubeck sat on a separate bench). 

 The counts of the empire did not vote individually, 

 but they were divided into the Wetteravten, Suabian, 

 Franconian, and Westphalian benches, each of which 

 had one vote. The prelates and abbots, divided into 

 the Suabian and Rhenish benches, had, also, two col- 

 lective votes. 3. The chamber of the imperial cities 

 was divided into the Rhenish and Suabian benches. 

 Each of the three chambers deliberated separately, but 

 the two first then met together, and decided, defini- 

 tively, on any proposition, which, when ratified by the 

 emperor, became a decree of the empire. All the 

 decrees of a diet were called a recess of the empire. 

 The declaration of war by the empire, was pro- 

 posed by the emperor, and decided by a majority of 

 votes. When mercenary troops began to be used, 

 in the time of Sigismund (1411 1437), each state, 

 instead of its former contingent of men, paid twelve 

 florins for every horseman, and four florins for every 

 foot soldier ; and these sums called Roman month* 

 (because the first expeditions had generally been to 

 Rome, and the time of the feudal service which the 

 vassals were bound to render on these occasions, had 

 been limited to six weeks, which they called a Roman 

 month}, were allowed to the emperor in all extract- 



