GERMANY. 



391 



ployed, as compared with the same date of the 

 preceding year, were as follow : 



The total number of vessels engaged in mari- 

 time commerce, and the number of steamships 

 among them, which composed the German 

 merchant marine on Jan. 1, 1882, with their 

 aggregate tonnage and the number of men eni- 



1882 



1881 



4.509 

 4,660 



1,194,407 89,109 

 1,161,525 89,660 



414 



251, 64* 

 215,758 



9,516 

 8,657 



Railroads. The railroads in operation in the 

 larger states, and the total mileage of the 

 empire on May 10, 1883, were as follow, in 

 kilometres : 



Of the 30,795 kilometres of principal lines, 

 10,285 kilometres have double and 35 triple or 

 quadruple tracks. Not included in the above 

 are 1,252 kilometres of industrial railroads. 



By the purchase of the Berlin and Hamburg, 

 and Kiel and Altona, the Oder right-shore line, 

 and the Upper Silesian railways, with some 

 minor roads, the Prussian Government system 

 of railways is completed. The aggregate length 

 of the new acquisitions, authorized by a bill 

 passed just before the close of the Landtag, is 

 about 3,000 kilometres. By previous purchases 

 the state owned 15,909 kilometres. It admin- 

 istered besides 2,236 kilometres of private roads. 

 The principle of the government management 

 of railroads was recognized in Prussia from the 

 beginning. It was expressed in the railroad 

 law of 1838, but the Government, before 1848, 

 did nothing beyond extending financial support 

 to the companies. In 1849 Minister von der 

 Heydt carried a measure providing for the con- 

 struction of a number of railroads by the Gov- 

 ernment. This policy was not carried out in 

 the succeeding period, and in default of state 

 construction every encouragement was given to 

 the building of railroads by private enterprise. 

 Hanover, Hesse, and Nassau, when annexed to 

 Prussia, brought well - developed systems of 

 state railways into the possession of the Gov- 

 ernment. After the French war the policy of 

 state railroads was resumed, but the Central 

 Government was unable to overcome the oppo- 

 sition of the middle states to a unified system 

 of railroads under the control of the imperial 

 authorities. The railroads in these states were 

 mostly public property. Prussia immediately 

 after the war constructed the Berlin- Wetzler- 

 Metz line, connecting the capital with the west- 

 ern part of the monarchy and the new impe- 

 rial province, and pending the issue of the con- 



troversy over the plan of an imperial system 

 of railroads, began to acquire possession of the 

 Prussian roads, standing ready to hand them 

 over to the national Government, according to 

 an enactment of June 4, 1876, whenever the 

 empire would engage to purchase the remain- 

 ing private lines. The political opposition to 

 the scheme of a unified imperial system, which 

 had withstood the raising of the tariff on freight 

 and other coercive measures, and the efforts of 

 the Imperial Railway Office, created by the 

 Reichstag in 1873, was not weakened by tins 

 offer. Left to accomplish the work of nation- 

 alization alone, the Prussian Government mado 

 preparations to bring all the railroads in the 

 monarchy under state management. It began 

 the series of purchases in 1879, in which year 

 the state net-work embraced 6,198 kilometres, 

 besides 3,525 kilometres controlled by the state 

 but owned by private persons. The task was 

 completed by the purchase of the last six lines 

 in 1883. The capital invested by the Govern- 

 ment in its railroad net-work is 1,327,983,000 

 marks, raised by the issue of bonds to the 

 amount of 1,867^339,885 marks. 



The length of telegraph lines in 1882 was 

 74,312 kilometres; of wires, 265,058 kilome- 

 tres. The number of dispatches was 18,362,- 

 173, of which 5,426,494 were foreign. The 

 receipts of the postal and telegraphic service 

 in 1882 were 164,259,372 marks; expenses, 

 140,733,520 marks. The Imperial Post-Office 

 carried 681,976,350 letters, 168,929,480 post- 

 cards, 14,013,710 patterns, 154,496,960 stamped 

 wrappers, and 453,602,400 newspapers, in the 

 year 1881. The number of post-offices at the 

 end of 1881 was 11,088 ; telegraphic stations, 

 10,308; persons employed, 78,502. 



Army and Navy. The effective of the army 

 on the peace footing in 1883 was as. follows: 



