116 



COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



the beginning of 1867 there had been incor- 

 porated in Austria 1,005 joint-stock associa- 

 tions, with a nominal capital stock of 4,000 

 million florins. Of these, only 682 received 

 the necessary amount of subscribed capital, 

 32 per cent, of their nominal capital. These 

 682 commenced existence with a paid-up capi- 

 tal stock of 850| million florins, and a par capi- 

 tal of 2,577 millions. These shares were driven 

 up to speculative prices on the exchange, and 

 when the crash came, it was found that the 

 common people had exchanged large amounts 

 of their savings for these worthless scraps of 

 paper. An illustration of the speculative fever 

 of the times is furnished by the Vienna building 

 associations, which purchased, at high prices, 

 more lots than would meet the requirements 

 of the population at the highest possible rate 

 of increase for a hundred years. The amount 

 of capital actually laid out in industrial enter- 

 prises was about 1,350 million florins, the great- 

 est part in the years 1872 and 1873. This 

 would not be a large amount of capital to place 

 in the same time in England or France, but 

 the results prove the uselessness of so rapidly 

 extended a productive capital in Austria at 

 that time. By September, 1874, 166 of the 

 682 new companies, with a capital of 360^ 

 millions, had ceased to exist ; and by the end of 

 that year, 143 companies, with a capital of 343| 

 million florins, had passed through bankruptcy. 

 The increased external commerce of Austria, 

 which nearly doubled between 1866 and 1873, 

 is a proof that the productive resources of the 

 country were really increased in this period ; 

 while the gradual change from a favorable bal- 

 ance of lllf million florins in 1866, to an ad- 

 verse one of 225 millions in 1872, when the 

 imports were nearly treble those of 1866, marks 

 the course of this period of over-speculation 

 and stimulated consumption. The imports and 

 exports of Au^tro- Hungary were, from 1866 to 

 1873, in millions of florins, as follows: 1866 

 imports, 217.9 ; exports, 329.5 ; 1867 imports, 

 294.3; exports, 407.4; 1868 imports, 387.4; 

 exports, 428.9; 1869 imports, 418.9; exports, 

 438.1; 1870 imports, 431.9 ; exports, 395.4; 

 1871 imports, 540.8; exports, 467.6 ; 1872 

 imports, 613.7; exports, 388.0 ; 1873 imports, 

 583.0 ; exports, 423.6. The progress of the im- 

 port and export trade of Germany also shows 

 the effects of the era of speculation, as well 

 as the partial success of the young industrial 

 enterprises. The imports from Great Britain, as 

 a representative example, attained their highest 

 point in 1872 (above 158 million dollars), since 

 which year they have decreased regularly, to 

 116 millions in 1875, while the exports to Great 

 Britain have as steadily increased from 96 mill- 

 ions in 1872 to 109 millions in 1875. The 

 German duties on iron were abolished at the 

 beginning of the year 1877, and the imports 

 were largely increased in consequence, being, 

 for the first quarter of this year, in. manufac- 

 tured iron, 1,106,000 cwt., against 410,000 

 cwt. for the same quarter in 1876 ; while the 



imports of raw iron and exports of manufac- 

 tures were considerably greater at the same 

 time, owing to the temporary demand for rails 

 and other articles in Russia. Count Franken- 

 berg stated in the Reichstag, in an argument 

 for retaining the iron duties, that the 32 

 principal iron-works in Germany lost 7 mill- 

 ion marks in the one year of 1876, on their 

 aggregate capital of 362 million marks. Tho 

 report of the Chamber of Commerce of Co- 

 logne attributed the depression in the iron and 

 coal trades to the unjustifiable extension of 

 the works after the rise in prices, which at- 

 tained as much as 100 per cent., and afterward 

 sank to the original level. The iron and coal 

 industries are the ones which have suffered 

 most in the late depression in all countries. 

 In England, of 962 furnaces, only 531 were at 

 work in the summer of 1877; in Germany, out 

 of 465, about half; in Belgium, 17 out of 54; 

 in Luxemburg, 9 out of 23. 



The commercial relations of Sweden and 

 Norway have extended rapidly in the last few 

 years. The imports increased from 141,686,000 

 rigsdalers (about $39,360,000) in 1870 to 306,- 

 810,000 rigsdalers ($90,558,000) in 1874. The 

 exports, as is usual in a rapid development of 

 the resources of a country, did not keep pace 

 with the imports, but yet increased from 152,- 

 602,000 to 233,332,000 rigsdalers, or from $42,- 

 360,000 to $64,814,000. One-fourth of the 

 imports in the latter year were British goods, 

 and two-thirds of the exports, consisting of 

 timber, oats, and iron, were to Great Brit- 

 ain. 



The returns of the Russian Finance Bureau 

 exhibited, in the beginning of 1877, a decrease 

 in all kinds of importations, except fuel, and a 

 considerable increase in the exports of the raw 

 products of Russia, with a very large increase 

 in the exportation of spirits. The condition 

 of trade in Russia was far from prosperous 

 before the beginning of the war. The failure 

 of Strousberg brought on a crisis in the banks 

 in 1875. At the end of 1876 there were large 

 exports of grain, but the year 1877 opened 

 gloomily, with a succession of failures all over 

 the country. The decrease in the imports into 

 Russia, from the effect of the war, was extraor- 

 dinary. The only increase was in coal and 

 steel rails, evidently imported for war-pur- 

 poses. The returns for the first eight months 

 of 1877, compared with the same portion of 

 the preceding year, show a decline in tea, cof- 

 fee, oil, and fish, of at least 50 per cent. ; in 

 salt, of 66 per cent. ; of nearly 80 per cent, in 

 wines, of two-thirds in tobacco, of 56 per cent, 

 in textile fabrics, and nearly half in textile 

 materials, except cotton, and a similar decrease 

 in every other class of imports. The imports 

 of raw cotton fell off over 40 per cent., al- 

 though there has sprung up a considerable new 

 trade with the Asiatic khanates in cotton 

 goods, which had been delivered in Khiva and 

 Bokhara to the value of 3 million rubles in 

 November, and a still larger in importations of 



