14 



proved facilities, the tax was becoming smaller year by year, 

 as the State's revenue indicates: 7,024 million thalers in 

 1839, and 5,494 in 1854. 1 An attempt to remedy this condi- 

 tion was made in 1854 by raising the per cent, from 3.3 to 5 

 and the tax from 72 to 131 marks. The heavier tax had the 

 immediate effect of increasing the revenue, but it also dimin- 

 ished the production. Large numbers of the smaller <stills 

 particularly were forced to cease operations, the number in 

 Tax-Union active in 1854 being 7493, and in 1856, 673o. 2 

 Many of these had existed for years on the difference between 

 the real and the nominal tax. The limit of thick mashing, 

 etc., had been reached for them, and there was nothing left 

 but to close, or to increase in size and so lower costs. Conse- 

 quently, along with the disappearance of many, we also find 

 the establishment of numerous large, well equipped plants and 

 an increase in production. From 1872 to 1880-81 there are 

 estimates of the product in the official year books. The gross 

 receipts from the tax are taken as a basis, and 26 marks 20 

 pfennigs as equivalent to a hectoliter of pure alcohol. This 

 method, which can only be approximately correct and proba- 

 bly gives much less than the real amount, shows a production 

 of 149 mil. liters of pure spirits for 1872, with a constant in- 

 crease for the years following. For the years after 1880 the 

 estimates are our own : 1874, 178 mil. liters ; 1876, 173 ; 

 1878, 181; 1880-81, 192; 1882-83, 200; 1884-85, 211; 1886- 

 87, 201. 



3. Other North German States. 



(a.) Introduction. 



In describing the alcohol industry of the other North Ger- 

 man States it is not necessary to go into detail, as the condi- 

 tions prevailing were, for the most part, very similar to those 

 in the adjacent Prussian provinces. Of these independent 

 States all save Saxony, Thuringia, Mecklenburg and Olden- 

 burg have been absorbed by Prussia, though during a consid- 

 erable part of the century they retained their independence 

 and continued their separate tariff and revenue systems, much 



1. Von Heckel in Conrad's Handwoerterbuch, 2d ed., vol. ii, p. 1063. 



2. Zeitschrift des pre\isa. Statist. Bureaus. 1869, p. 117. 



