Consumable unwrought products From Prussia, to the value of Hanse towns Germany For internal use, and to be exported again, goods of all kinds were imported Hanse towns In manufactured goods From Prussia Hanse towns Total And in ready money Hence it is clear that the value of the imports from Germany amounts to about of the total imports, and is from 15 to 16 millions of francs below the value of the French imports into the German countries. ❤ A broader basis of comparison is found in the proportion of the imports to the home consumption. For consumption are imported, as requisites for manufacturesFrom Prussia Hanse towns Germany In raw consumable materials From Prussia 10,212,991 196,117,755 27,987,377 7,824,025 23,368,928 Frcs. 15,204,775 22,385,405 60,959,108 Frcs. 14,790,100 4,997,089 3,612,057 17,429,151 Frcs. 8,820,005 8,504,80326,541,819 3,274,216 237,112 6,553,561 3,042,233 Total Hence Germany has furnished Of the whole value of the imports for home use Of the import of requisites for French manufactures, nearly Of the import of raw consumable articles, nearly If we compare, however, the imports of France from Germany with her exports of her own products and goods to Germany, it appears that these exports of 65,742,368 Frcs. exceeded the imports of 50,524,531, by 15,217,837 Frcs.; and that the French exports in raw materials to Germany were to her imports of raw materials and requisites for manufactures in the proportion of 1 to 21; whereas, Germany imported seven times the quantity of manufactures from France, that France imported from Germany. It may be easily supposed that the results differ from year to year-but thus much is clear, that, in the trade between France and Germany, the total exports and imports are much more nearly equalized than in the trade between Great Britain and the German States. We find in former years, when the excess of the exports was greater than in the year 1832, viz. in the year 1831, and others, that, according to the official valuation, the imports of France from Germany exceeded her exports thither, as in the year 1830. We cannot decide with certainty, from the excess in the amount of ready money sent to France, in a series of years, that Germany has to cover a considerable portion of her debt for goods by the transmission of specie to France, on account of the paper circulation, and of the equalization of the trading balances through the medium of a third market. For the rest, similar results are everywhere found, with relation to the comparisons which have been given of the year 1832. In the year 1830, the exports to Germany in French products and manufactures were 1-9th of the whole exports of such articles; and the imports from Germany, for home consumption, were about 1-8th to 1-9th of the total imports for home use. As in the year 1831, Germany supplied 1-7th of the articles of consumption, and 1-4th of the imports of manufactures. The greatest variations are presented in consequence of the varying fruitfulness of years, and of the French regulations for the import of raw consumable products for home consumption. Whilst, in 1832, the value of these imports from Germany, Prussia, and the Hanse towns, was reckoned at 26,541,819 Frcs., we find in the import list of 1833, the import of such products reckoned at only 7,138,000 Frcs. These imports, diminished in the relation of 4 to 1, must necessarily have had a reaction on the exports of French manufactures, which, in 1832, amounted to 46,381,354 Frcs.; and, in 1833, to only 37,871,497 Frcs. 11 The exports in home and French products and manufactures to the German states of 67,391,901 Frcs., amounted still to about of the total imports; and the exports in home products and manufactures, of 58,800,888 Frcs., to about of the exports of French articles to all countries. Whereas the imports from the German states, at the most, of 57,420,205 Frcs., were only about of the total imports; and the imports for consumption from Germany, of 38,919,563 Fres., only amount to from to of the total imports for consumption. 12 1 14 13 Let us now consider the influence that the Customs' Union seems likely to exercise upon the trade with France. Above all, it is clear, in this respect, that the Customs' Union cannot immediately affect the exports of German products and manufactures to France, as most of these articles are quite free, and the others only moderately taxed on exportation. Only, in so far as the Union tariff is favourable to the prosperity of German manufacturing industry, and the increased activity of trade increases the demand for raw materials and for the means of subsistence for the working class, can it directly occasion a diminution of the sale of productions of the German soil. On the other hand, the extension of the Customs' Union tariff over almost all the German states, into which hitherto the import of foreign manufactures was not rendered difficult, and which besides this served as magazines and channels for the conveyance of such goods into the neighbouring German states, will not remain without a palpable direct influence upon the imports from France. But, as little as the Union tariff threatens to limit the French export trade, in the same degree as it does the British, so little will its operation bear even a remote resemblance to the influence which the French tariff exercises upon the imports from Germany. France, as we have seen, does not send us the same quantity of common and cheap cottons, muslin, nankeen, common and dearer woollen stuffs, and stuffs of mixed wool and cotton, that England does; but a much smaller quantity of cottons, though in gene ral of better quality, and proportionably a greater quantity of fine and light woollens and stuffs made of the hair of other animals, and especially of silk stuffs and fashionable articles, than Great Britain does. Whilst the duty of 85 fl. which the Union tariff lays, per cwt., upon cotton goods, on the middling and cheaper sorts amounts to from 30 to 60 per cent., or more; on finer and more expensive goods, it amounts to only 10-20 per cent. of their value.* Whilst the duty of 51 fl. 2 kr. per cwt. (50 kilogrammes) on middling and cheaper woollen cloths, and woollen and cotton mixed stuffs, is a burden of 15-30, and more, per cent.; on finer cloths and stuffs of wool, and the hair of other animals, it is only 10, 5, and even less, per cent. on the value. On an average, silk stuffs, which are the chief branch of French exports, are much more moderately taxed than other manufactured goods. The duty of 187 fl. 5 kr. per cwt. is not more than 12 per cent. of the value of the raw materials, when cleaned and prepared for being wrought; and the goods which are completed, and which are raised 13 or twice, or even more considerably in value, appear in the same proportion to be still lese burdened. The duty of 93 fl. 32 kr. per. cwt. on jewelry falls in a still heavier proportion upon the English hardwares than upon French jewelry and ornamental articles, watches and clocks. If we examine the official and detailed re-statements of the French administration of the customs, we shall easily perceive that, upon the whole, all manufactured goods which French industry has to offer to the German markets, are, with few and upon the whole unimportant exceptions, but moderately taxed by the Union tariff; and that especially the duty upon the numerous articles of luxury, with which France has hitherto furnished us, will not affect our imports in any material degree. We find French cottons, on an average, in the official statements of value, rated at 26 Frcs. per kilogramme; therefore at about 550 fl. per cwt. of 50 kilogrammes. French industry will therefore at most, with regard to common cotton goods, upon the sale of which the tariffs of the earlier Unions have already operated, sell a few cwt. less; through the restriction of the sale of fine woollen cloths, the imports of which have for some years been rather diminished, it will suffer upon the whole an inconsiderable loss; and in simple and plain silk stuffs it will find competition more difficult: but, on the other hand, in the chief branches of its exports, in which it was indebted to the good taste, to the number and variety of forms, to the beauty of the patterns, and to the happy choice of colours, for its success in the German markets, it will feel the operation of the Union tariff but very little; because the customers for such goods, even by an addition equal to the duty of from 5 to 10 per cent., will not be deterred from the selection of what is most pleasing to them. The Union duties upon chemical products and requisites for manufactures of many kinds, of which Germany receives no inconsiderable proportion from France, have no injurious influence upon the export trade of France, with perhaps some, and at the same time inconsiderable, exceptions. Of the natural productions upon which the Union tariff falls, wine, brandy, and oil in particular, are those in which French products are interested. Olive oil has only a duty of 2 fl. 48 kr. per cwt. (50 Kil.) laid upon it; and, for the use of manufactures, it pays only a very moderate duty of 50 kr. per cwt. It is only French brandy and wines, the export of which to Germany is clogged with a tax of 8 Thalers, or 13 fl. 38 kr. the cwt. A duty of 450-500 fl. the ton (of 15 hectolitres, or 2000 middle-sized bottles) is even for higher-priced wines a high duty, and exceeds the cost of the middling and inferior sorts. What may be said of the duties on those articles of industry which appertain to the realm of taste or fashion, is, at the same time, more or less applicable to all natural products, to which climate and soil give a peculiar quality. In other productions a trifling tax is often the occasion that the indigenous producer has the advantage over foreign competition, or the consumer contents himself with a substitute which supplies his necessities/ |