ZOLLVEREIN 



frilo 



ZONE 



state trade, as well as commerce with foreign 

 countries, was made difficult and complicated 

 by the fact that each state had its own tariff 

 system. Goods crossing the country would 

 bave to pay tolls every few leagues as the 

 different state barriers were reached, and there 

 was absolutely no uniformity in the scale of 

 duties. This not only meant constant annoy- 

 ance, but encouraged smuggling and hindered 

 commercial growth. 



Finally, in 1818, Prussia the strongest of the 

 German states passed a law abolishing inter- 

 nal customs entirely, and establishing a com- 

 mon tariff to be collected only at the general 

 frontier and divided among the states of the 

 kingdom in proportion to population. Prussia 



the Empire was to be included in the Zoll- 

 verein, with the exception of the "free ports" 

 of Bremen and Hamburg, but in 1888 they, too, 

 were added, excepting certain parts of Ham- 

 burg. 



ZONE, zohn, a subdivision of the earth's 

 surface, particularly one of the five great cli- 

 matic belts bounded by circles parallel to the 

 equator. The largest of these is the torrid 

 zone, which extends to 23 30' each side of 

 the equator, its northern boundary being 

 known as the Tropic of Cancer and its south- 

 ern boundary as the Tropic of Capricorn. The 

 most densely-populated belts are the north and 

 south temperate zones, which are forty-three 

 degrees in width and which extend from the 



Zoo. of Trd* Wind*. 



Zon* of Equatorial C*lir. 



Zor> Of T-d Wind* 



THE ZONES OF THE EARTH 

 At left, the solar zones; at right, the climatic zones. 



invited the other states to adopt the same 

 policy, and a number of them made compacts 

 among themselves, resulting in the North Ger- 

 man, the South German and the Middle Ger- 

 man unions. In 1834 Prussia went still further 

 and merged these three smaller unions into 

 the great Zollvcrein which did so much to 

 unify Germany. There was some opposition, 

 largely from Austria and other states jealous of 

 Prussia's growing power, but little by little tli- 

 remaining states were drawn into the Zoll- 

 verein, attracted by the great benefits of free 

 trade. By 1866 it included practically all of 

 the Germanic states except Austria, and began 

 making commercial treaties with other c< 



When the German Empire was estab- 

 li-hed in 1871, at the close of the Franco-' 

 man War, its constitution provul II of 



tropics of Cancer and Capricorn to the Arctic 

 and Antarctic circles, respectively. The two 

 frigid zones are twenty-three and one-half de- 

 grees in width, the north frigid zone extending 

 from the Arctie Circle to. the North Pole and 

 tin- south frigid zone from the Antarctic Circle 

 to the South Pole. They are regions of eternal 

 ice and snow, and very near the poles their 

 year consists of but one night and one day, 

 each six months in Icnpth. Iti the temperate 

 zones, as one approaches the torrid realm, t he- 

 days and nights during summer and winter be- 

 come more nearly equal, and at the equator 

 each consists of twelve hours. Although defi- 

 nite circles determined by astronomical condi- 

 tions bound these zones, in temperature each 

 merges gradually into the adjoining division, 

 ,-ind no di-tmet climatic boundary exists. 



