COMMERCE. 



36^ 



Commerce. 



The iulaud and foreign trade of Grermany is about equal in extent to that of 

 France, and has recently assumed gigantic propartions.* A very considerable 

 proportion of the imports and exports consists of raw produce, and whilst 

 Germany supplies England and France to a great extent with food and fuel, 

 it accepts from these countries manufactured articles in return, f 



Germany has 65,245 miles of macadamised roads, and 1,503 miles of canals, the 

 latter being far from sufficient to meet the requirements of inland traffic, which 

 is almost exclusively carried on by means of navigable rivers. Of railways there 

 were open for traffic in 1878 18,022 miles, and nearly 200,000,000 passengers and 

 125,000,000 tons of merchandise were conveyed over them in that year. About 

 one-half of them were the property of the various Governments, and throughout the 

 country they yielded a dividend of over 5 per cent. 



The commercial marine, on January 1st, 1878, consisted of 4,805 sea-going 

 vessels, of 1,117,935 tons register. Included in this number are 338 steamers, of 

 183,379 tons and 50,603 horse-power. Liibeck, the ancient capital of the Hanse, 

 no longer holds its place as the first port of the empire, for Hamburg and 

 Bremen are now the principal seats of the maritime commerce of the country. 



They are in error who speak of Germany as a " poor" country, and it only 

 needs a glance at the shipping crowding its ports, at the busy life pulsating 

 through its railway stations, and at the many fine editices recently built in its large 

 cities, to convince us of the contrary. Political economists have estimated the annual 

 national income at £700,000,000, or about £84 for each family of five persons. In 

 prosperous years £40,000,000 are deposited in the savings banks, and the money in 

 circulation exceeds £100,000,000. The 114 leading banks of the empire have a paid- 

 up cajpitql of £67,602,278, and a reserve fund of £6,531,659, the notes in circulation 



ine: the state- 



Exports. 



299,315 



463,840 



94,050 



272,519 



1,018,499 



39,620 



53,390 



16,695 



6,880,382 



1,708,617 



4,512,600 



2,368,868 



820,276 



