ON THE ACCESSION OF HAMBURG TO THE PRUS

SIAN CUSTOMS' UNION.

EXTRACTED FROM THE HAMBURGISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR POLITIK

HANDEL UND HANDELSRECHT.

"The Senate of Hamburg here lays claim, even in the provisional state of the commercial relations of Germany, and in the relation of all Germany towards foreign countries, to the same liberal principles which the Royal Government of Prussia indicates as the definitive aim of all its exertions,'within,' however, the limits of the Union.""

Protocol of the Diet of 10 January, 1833.

FREEDOM of trade and intercourse in the different states of the Union is the principle and the object which Prussia prominently put forward when she gradually entered into negociations with several states respecting the conclusion of the Customs' Union; and, in the course of seven years, the barriers and Custom Houses were successively removed, which had hitherto closed to East Prussia the road to the Prussian Rhenish Lands, which had impeded the intercourse of the Germans living in Bavaria, Wurtemburg, the Hessian and other territories. Even those countries, whose commerce and manufactures suffered often more even than those of Prussia from the oppression of vexatious frontier tolls, must have welcomed the opportunity of extending those frontiers and affording to their subjects greater liberty of commerce. Saxony, also, although hitherto paying homage to the system of freedom of commerce, was at last so cramped by the toll-united lands, that it was obliged to throw itself into the arms of the Union in order not to be overwhelmed by its own superabundance of manufactured articles. With regard to these countries, then, the above` mentioned object of the Union may have been attained; by acceding to the Union, they were relieved on one, two, or on all sides from the burdensome fetters of the prohibitive system, and VOL. IV.NO. XXIX.

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brought nearer to the wished-for aim of universal freedom of commerce in the same proportion as they saw these impediments disappear. But the question presents itself in a different, and indeed in a wholly opposite, point of view with regard to a state, which, having already outgrown all restrictions of commerce, and being liberated from all the plagues of Entrance, Exit, and Transit Duties, is not enclosed by the cordon of the Customs' Union, and which leans on one side on the free element which treaty and the rights of nature and of nations forbid to be closed. Such a state, by being enclosed in the bond of the Toll Union, would lay chains on itself, the non-existence of which makes its prosperity, and by subscribing to the Customs' Union Convention would act in opposition to the first principle of that Union, which promises to the subject "the benefits of a free trade." Such a state, however, is Hamburg; and, notwithstanding this, is there really any one who would wish to give himself the useless trouble of putting forward and investigating the question, whether an adherence of Hamburg to the Union is advisable?

The shortest way would certainly be to negative the question at once; and here on the spot, at least, we should hardly expect that such an answer would be open to contradiction. But the question is one of such extraordinary importance, of so universal a German interest, that every aid to its investigation, every introduction of arguments for and against it, must be welcome. Still we should be glad to abandon the investigation of the subject to abler pens and to more practical experience, if it had not. been for the appearance just at this moment of a work of high authority, which puts forward the opposite view of this subject, and to leave which unanswered, one may almost say, patriotism forbids.

The most profound and the most detailed work, which has hitherto appeared on the Customs' Union, is doubtless the work which appeared last year,

The German Customs' Union, its System and its Prospects. By Dr. C. F. Nebenius, &c. &c. &c., Carlsruhe, 1835.

M. Nebenius, whose above-mentioned title sufficiently explains

his high position, is well known to be one of the most zealous adherents of the Prussian League, and one of the most active co-operators in Baden for the accession of that country to the Union. His work, although partly based on the principles of the system of protective duties, and always proceeding from the conviction that the German Customs' Union is a benefit to the world, and therefore sometimes not entirely impartial, still affords a clear insight into the essence, the object, and the institution of the great Union of which it treats, and contains, with an abundance of national, financial, and legislative wisdom, a rich treasure in collected notices and details on the commercial and industrial relations of Germany. It is not our object to enter into a particular notice of its contents, or even a critique of this work. We leave every thing else aside for the moment, in order to quote the following passage, word for word:

"The situation of the North German free towns appears to us to be of such a character, that their perseverance in a state of isolation towards the Union can bring them no advantages, but must on the other hand bring them disadvantages. Their accession can only be advantageous to them. The experience of other countries teaches, that a high Tariff of Customs is perfectly compatible with the prosperity of the sea towns, which receive on the one hand what the market of the interior has to offer to the distant foreign country, and on the other what foreign countries transmit to them in the way of import and export, commission or transit trade. So far, however, as the high duties of the Tariff diminish the foreign commerce of the market in the rear, such a disadvantage affects the German maritime towns in exactly the same manner, whether they be united with that market territory under one system of tolls, or whether, excluded from the same, they form only one small territory. On the other hand, the state of isolation entails upon them losses which they can avert by acceding to the Union. In every case the Tariff Union will limit the sale of all products of their own manufacturing industry. This disadvantage cannot be unimportant, since such states as prosper by commerce always carry on other separate branches of industry

with success, and in a larger extent. The facility of the commu. nications, the convenient exchange of raw materials, the greater cheapness of capital, are advantages which manufacturing industry does not leave unutilized. We must add, however, to the influence of the Customs' Tariff on the particular productions of the Hanse towns, the dependence in which also their transit trade is so far placed, from the fact of their sharing with several other places the furnishing of the Union market with transmarine goods, and the Union possesses many means of favouring to their disadvantage the freight of wares from other places. The more intimate union with the countries on the neighbouring coasts and with the Union would be of great value to the German maritime towns for their export and import and coasting trade in the whole territory of their natural market; their competition with foreign ports would in every direction be variously favoured by the improvement, which might be more easily expected in such an union, of the means of communication and by other effectual measures. The Union would lend them the weight of its support on foreign markets; they would earn in rich proportion the costly fruits of the greater universal freedom of commerce, which we contemplate as the grand object of the German Commercial League, whilst, by their accession, they would strengthen the power of the Union, and materially contribute to the attainment of that object. Their intimate adherence to the Union, enlarged by the accession of the remaining North German countries on the Weser and the Elbe, would be a great step to the formation of a German marine. In the same manner they would derive advantage for their maritime trade, their commission and coasting trade; the German towns would derive great advantage for the various branches of their own industry from acceding to the Union. They possess tobacco factories, sugar-refineries, spinneries, calico and linen printings, woollen factories, leather, whalebone, and glue factories, &c. The advantage of the protecting duties, united with the free communication, on the German market, would secure to them not only their former sale, but would restore what they have latterly lost, and would allow many branches to gain an extent hitherto

not attained. They would in this manner be able to utilize completely the advantage which the cheapness of capital, and in certain branches of industry the convenient choice of raw stuffs, afford for every undertaking. One of the most important branches of industry, the sugar refineries, which have suffered a considerable check by the Union Tariff, would quickly recover, and, in the course of averting foreign competition, would easily obtain a sale on the German market, which would make them less sensible of the losses already incurred by the closing of the Russian markets against them. The Hamburg market in the latest period received about one hundred millions of pounds of raw sugar annually. Before the French invasion, the free town had four hundred and fifty refineries; at present there are only two hundred, and, looking to the future, the operation of a duty of 3 to 4 rxd. per cwt. will far outweigh all the advantages of the locality of this place, and the greater skill of production acquired by a long course of time, and almost entirely exclude their competition on the Union market. In earlier times the Dutch refineries principally rivalled Hamburg in furnishing Western Germany. Liberated from this competition, this place would the more easily maintain its natural preponderance in that branch of industry, and extend its market towards its earlier limits. The direct consequences of a more intimate union of the German ports with their natural market territory would assuredly also be displayed in the increase of the direct trade of Germany with Trans-European countries."

So much for that portion of the work of Counsellor Nebenius which particularly regards the Hanse towns and Hamburg. The result, M. Nebenius remarks, is, that our father town ought to desire to be annexed to the Union. Exactly the contrary opinion prevails here. In order to come to a definitive decision between these opposite views, to arrive at a sound judgment, we require amongst other things to possess many materials which are not yet collected. On the one hand, we ought to have detailed reports on the effects hitherto produced by the new system in the tollunited lands. Reports which hitherto have been limited to sepa