ourselves obliged, in order to avoid it, for the sake of our refineries, to fetter our trade with the Prussian system of duties; and were we even voluntarily to chuse these fetters, it would always remain problematical whether they would be strong enough artfully to draw back those branches of industry which through other circumstances were transferred to, and had become indigenous in, other lands. Another consideration is not to be left out of sight. The votaries of the protecting system distinctly require, in order to favour inland industry, not only that the import of foreign manufactures should be made difficult, but that every possible facility should be given to the imports of foreign raw materials for inland manufactures. The Prussian tariffs of duties has now, it is true, as its defenders say, 'very low" rates for the import duties on raw stuffs: but this " very low" is only to be understood in a relative sense, namely, as compared with the very high duties on manufactured goods (which are more than twice as high,) or as compared with duties which formerly, perhaps, in other countries impeded the importation of raw materials. In comparison, however, with the import duties here, these very low duties appear to be very high. While our manufacturers pay for the hundred weight of raw sugar (per cent.) about 14 B duty, they would, on the other hand, after adherence to the Union, pay for every cwt. 12 mks. 8 B; and if they altogether annually refined five hundred thousand cwt. they would pay more than six millions mks. in duties alone. Such an impost would at least very much embitter the joy which the manufacturers might feel at the facility offered for their sales in the interior, through their adhesion to the Union. Thus cotton yarn, which is now imported free, would be subjected to an import duty of 2 to 6 rxd.; which, according to Becker, makes about three per cent of the value of the average numbers drawn from England.

Tobacco leaves, equally the material of an important branch of industry, which now bear here an import duty of per cent (the average price of the middle sort taken at 14 mks. Bco. for the cwt.), of 1 B. court. for the cwt., would be subject to an impost of about 13 mks. court. (5 rxd. 15 g.) For wood, to be worked for furniture,

1 rxd.; for leather, 6 to 8 rxd. the cwt. would be the amount of the import duty. Let it be considered, likewise, that no small portion of the industry of this place, for instance, the last-mentioned branches, find their sale not in the countries of the Customs' Union, but in those beyond the sea, and therefore would gain but little from the facilitated inland exchange; and we shall arrive at the conclusion that in an industrial point of view, an adherence to the Customs' Union would, for some individual principal branches of our manufactures, bring a greater sale by the opening of a freer inland market, and would thus prove advantageous; but, on the other hand, even in these branches of industry, as in most others, the increase of price of the raw material would impede manufactures, and again be disadvantageous; and the gain to those individual manufactures is not important enough to the whole State, to make it desire an adhesion to the Customs' Union, if her finances and her trade are to suffer from such a step. III. The commercial point of view.

One preliminary remark is here indispensable, which may have been hitherto overlooked in what has been said before. Hamburg is surrounded by States which have not united themselves to the Prussian system of duties. Hannover on one side, Holstein on the other, divide our country from the great Customs' Union; it is, therefore, in the nature of things that the conduct of these two countries towards the Customs' Union must be an important precedent for the policy of Hamburg. It might even appear as if the concurrence of the last State were impossible, without that of one of the two others. This is not so, however. Hamburg might serve as the North Sea harbour for the Prussian customs dominion, without immediately touching the remaining territory of the Union. It would so far adhere to the system of duties, as it would adopt the whole system, and then the wares which were exported into the united countries, or the reverse, would be subjected to no duties of export or import. The transit dues on the adjoining but not allied country would be, indeed, inconvenient, but would be no serious impediment. They would, probably, not be immediately high in Holstein, where, according to

all probability, an improvement of the system of duties will take place simultaneously with the constitution of the Diets; but in Hannover and Brunswick, however, where, according to the new Hannoverian and Brunswick Union tariffs, it is fixed at 4 gr. the cwt., it would be but very trifling, on account of the wellunderstood interests of the two united lands: and, in the worst case, the water carriage of the Elbe is always open, which by treaty and the laws of the Diet cannot be closed. The concurrence of Hamburg in the Prusso-Germanic Customs' Union is thus no ways conditional on that of Hannover or Holstein. Much less would the concurrence of the two latter States make that of

Hamburg necessary. If the whole of Germany were girt with the lines of the duties of the Prussian restrictive system, yet the Hanse towns might still lay claim, and, with right, to remain as free harbours of Germany, excluded from those lines, as likewise Holstein would certainly never permit the freedom of the port of Altona to be taken away from her. As the concurrence of Hamburg in the Union is thus made neither conditional nor necessary on the concurrence of her neighbours, it was not necessary in the two former sections in which we treated of the relations over which the resolution of the same could exercise no material influence, to take any special view of the further policy of those countries. In a commercial point of view, however, we ought, on no account, to overlook the steps of our nearest neighbours. Whether a concurrence with the Union were advantageous to these or not is not here the question: thus much is certain that, under the relations in which the newly-bound Hannoverian and Brunswick Union stands towards England, and the Duchy of Holstein and Lauenburg towards Denmark, the accession of these four countries to the Prussian Customs' Union (as long as these relations last) is highly improbable. The situation in which Hamburg, as the most western German North Sea harbour, is placed towards the commerce of the world, may be seen by the first glance at the map. That part of the European Continent which is confined between the Rhine, the Vistula, and the Southern High Mountains, forms the natural dominion of its land

commerce.

The goods which are exported or imported by sea from or into this tract of land come or go for the most part through Hamburg, whether they be on account of the traders here or elsewhere. With regard to this question, it is only necessary to distinguish, throughout that natural domain of commerce, three different countries. 1. The countries of the Customs' Union; 2, those on this side of them; 3, those on the farther side of them.

Among the first we reckon the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Duchy of Nassau, and the free State of Frankfort, of whose accession to the Customs' Union scarcely a doubt now remains ; to the last belongs principally the Austrian territory, as far as the domain of the Elbe; and Switzerland as far as the domain of the Rhine reaches. With respect to the countries of the Customs' Union, the observation of Herr von Nebenius is true, but true only of them alone. So far as the height of the tariff diminishes the foreign trade of the market lying behind, such a disadvantage will equally affect all the German ports, whether they be connected with that market by the same system of duties or not. If, for instance, Prussia should endeavour to diminish the imports of English manufactures, by an immoderately high duty upon them, the trade of Hamburg in these articles with the countries under the Customs' Union must, of necessity, suffer in both cases. The traffic with countries which do not belong to the Union will, however, remain unaffected by the Prussian duties, so long as Hamburg keeps herself free from the Prussian system. If, then, it is not to be denied that, through the adhesion of Hamburg to the Customs' Union, her trade with the countries of the Union would not diminish, and that we should lose nothing in this respect; so, on the other hand, it is as true that, in this respect, we should gain nothing. Goods from the Colonies destined for Hamburg and Magdeburg pass through Hamburg now, as they did before the existence of the Customs' Union; and there is no reason for supposing that more of these articles would pass through Hamburg after acceding to the Customs' Union, since the duties of the Union remain always the same, whether they be raised in

Magdeburg or Hamburg. Levying the duties in the last-named place, with all the impediments and difficulties connected with it, would, however, bring a great inconvenience with it; namely, the enormous outlay which would fall upon the coffers of Hamburg, and the want of money, which must necessarily arise from it: this observation applies equally to the trade of this place, and not merely to that with the countries connected with the Union, of which we are now speaking. An accurate idea may be formed of the considerable amount of these expenses of duties, when we consider only some principal articles. The yearly imports of coffee into Hamburg, which would pay duty after an accession to the Customs' Union, may be said to amount at least to forty-seven millions lbs. The Prussian duty requires 6 rxd. 20 slbr. gr. the cwt. ; the duty to be paid, then, annually at Hamburg, would amount to about five millions six hundred thousand mks. Bco. Thus in raw sugar import ninety-two millions lbs. duty at 5 rxd. per cwt.: eight millions three hundred thousand mks. Bco. Wine: about thirty thousand hogsheads; duty 40 rxd. the hogshead; two millions four hundred thousand mks. Bco., which in coffee, sugar, and wine, makes above sixteen millions mks. Bco. For these three articles then, only, the sum is enormous. Still, the duties on manufactured goods would rise in a still greater disproportion. That so considerable an increase of expenditure of ready money, without any apparent increase of trade, and therefore of gain, must have an important influence upon the finances of Hamburg is evident, and that the effect would be disadvantageous is more than probable; for if the capitalists might find themselves the better for it, and would receive higher interest and discount, the other traders would meet with many embarrassments; and in every case the capital, which the tolls, that is to say, the revenues of Prussia, Bavaria, and Hesse, swallow up, would be withdrawn from the trade of Hamburg, which could make a better use of it, and not only for its own advantage, but for the support of German trade in general. The trade of Hamburg would then obtain no advantage by her accession to the Commercial Union, but might, from the above-named reasons, be injured.