222 Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
The following is the official return of the production of com in Belgium : — 
Average per year for the three years ending 1865. 
Wheat 1,636,860 quarters. 
Spelt 363,618 ,, 
Mixed corn 225,849 • ,, 
Rye 1,466,970 
Buckwheat 2U9,91G ,, 
Total 3,893,213 ,, 
HANOVER, 1866. — Hanover exports nearly every year a small amount of 
various sorts of grain. 
The Hanse Towns Beemen and Hambuegh. 
Territory very small, and the agriculture chiefly grazing. The grain 
required for consumption is chiefly brought from Hanover, Mecklenburg, 
&c. 
HAMBUEGH, 1861.— The harvest for 1861 was abundant throughout Ger- 
many. Very large quantities of corn were exported from Hamburgh and Baltic 
ports to Great Britain, France, and other countries, and the stocks in warehouse at 
the close of the year were nevertheless considerable. The reduction of the rates 
of freight on most of the railways, and the alterations in the French corn law, 
whereby fixed duties were substituted for the sliding-scale, were circumstances 
which could not but tend to the expansion and security of the German corn 
trade ; a trade still of great importance, although its character has so much 
changed since the abolition of the English corn restrictions and the consequent 
opening of the English ports to grain and flour coming from America and all 
other parts of the world. 
As there was a deficiency in corn in 1861, in other countries, prices rose 
considerably, so that unusually large quantities were brought to Hamburgh 
and sold chiefly for exportation in the course of the year. 
Navigation is sometimes interrupted by ice on the Elbe, but not in 
1863. 
1862. — A good harvest in 1862 in Germany generally somewhat reduced 
the prices of the necessary articles of consimrption throughout the coimtry, 
and promoted exijortation. 301,720 quarters of wheat were brought to 
Hamburgh in the year 1862, chiefly from the interior of Germany, either by 
the Elbe or by railway, in transit for exportation. The total tiansactions in 
corn (valued at one million and a half pounds sterling), at Hamburgh, 
were nearly one-third less than in 1861, when the business was extraordinarily 
large. 
1867, Corn Trade. — The extent of the corn and flour trade of Hamburgh, 
will be seen in the following statements of the quantities imported. The 
time when large quantities of corn were kept in warehouse here ready for ship- 
ment at short notice has passed away, in consequence of the abolition of the 
English protective system, and the sujjplies are now forwarded hither from 
the interior, as occasion may require, chiefly by the Elbe and the Berlin Rail- 
way, and are shipped at once for British or other foreign ports. 
1865. 1866. 1867. 
Wheat .. .. (qrs.) .. .. 280,000 .. 330,000 .. 480,000 
Eye ,. .. .. .. 100,000 .. 132,000 .. 125,000 
Barley .. .. „ .. .. 100,000 .. 150,000 .. 209,000 
ZoLLVEREiN RENEWED. — The German States lying to the south of the River 
Maine preserved, as is well known, their independence after the war of 1866, 
