Miltitz near Leipzig, October, 1910 1 ). 



We are able, on the present occasion, to restrict our account of|the 

 commercial conditions of our branch of industry in the course of the past 

 half-year within a brief compass. Thanks to the blessings of an assured 

 peace, the industrial position has become still more secure and it is there- 

 fore possible now to look to the future with equal confidence as at the 

 time when we issued our last Report. The volume of business in all the 

 consuming markets in which we are interested showed a further expansion 

 during the early summer, although in the soap industry, owing to the high 

 cost of raw materials, purchases were in many cases severely restricted. 

 It was not until the months of July and August that a certain summer- 

 repose became perceptible, but this is already beginning to make place 

 again for a more animated demand for current requirements. The con- 

 tinued ease of the money market is lending a strong support to the 

 healthy progress of the staple industries, and there are reasons for anti- 

 cipating with confidence that the brisker autumn trade will not be attend- 

 ed by any material change for the worse in the general condition of 

 business. In the first seven months of the year the value of German 

 exports has increased by o4i 544100000.— (equal to 15,1 °/o) as com- 

 pared with the corresponding period of the year 1909; but in this connec- 

 tion it must be remembered that since last year the prices of a large 

 number of the most important German export articles have advanced. 

 The transactions with foreign countries in essential oils also afford cause 

 for satisfaction. In the first six months of the year the figures were as 

 follows: — 



Imports Exports 



1910 560500 kilos 283000 kilos 



1909 402100 n „\ ,„ 238900 „ 



In considering the import figured for 1910 it must, however, be borne 

 in mind that they include large quantities* of camphor oil (about 200000 kilos 

 according to our estimate), an article of which the receipts in 1909 were 



x ) The commercial part of this Report was compiled in September. 



