CHAPTER XX.

OF VITAL CHANGES IN THE FORMS OF MATTER

CONTINUED.

1. The German manufacturing system due to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Its gradual development down to the close of the war in 1815. Its decline, under the free trade system which followed the peace. First Prussian tariff having for its object the diversification of the employments of the people.

2. Gradual formation of the Zoll-Verein, or Customs Union. Great increase of foreign and domestic commerce consequent upon the adoption of measures tending to the emancipation of German land from the oppressive tax of transportation. Protection having cheapened finished commodities, Germany now exports them. Having raised the prices of raw materials, they are now imported.

23. Growing division of the land, accompanied by an enlargement of the proportions borne by the agricultural class to the mass of which society is composed. Increased respect for the rights of property, consequent upon its more general diffusion among the people. Steady increase in the freedom of man, and in the strength of the State. 24. Rude character of Russian agriculture half a century since. Growth of manufactures under the Continental system of Napoleon. Their disappearance under the free trade system. Re-adoption of the policy of Colbert, and its effects. Great increase in the quantity and value of agricultural products since the re-adoption of protection. 25. Increase in the competition for the purchase of the laborer's services and growing freedom of man.

6. Obstacles standing in the way of the creation of a scientific agriculture. Communism and its effects.

27. Growing individuality among the people, with corresponding growth of strength in the State.

28. Sweden, like Russia, follows in the lead of France-maintaining the policy of Colbert, to the exclusion of that advocated by the economists of Britain. Its effects, as exhibited in bringing the consumer and producer into close proximity to each other. Comparative movement of the population, and of the supply of food.

9. Division of land and increase of its value-resulting from its emancipation from the tax of transportation. Intellectual development, consequent upon the creation of local centres of activity.

10. Social decentralization gradually correcting the errors of political centralization. 11. Differing in race, habits, manners, and religion, France and Germany, Spain and Denmark, Sweden and Russia, are agreed in nothing, except in the maintenance of a policy which looks to the promotion of association, the extension of commerce, and the emancipation of the land from the tax of transportation, in accordance with the ideas of Adam Smith. In all of them agriculture steadily advances, the land becomes more divided, and men become more free. Agreeing in nothing else, Portugal and Turkey, Ireland and India, unite in the maintenance of the policy advocated by the RicardoMalthusian school. In all of them agriculture declines, the land becomes consolidated, and the freedom of man has almost wholly passed away.

"GERMANY," says Professor List, the man to whose patriotic labors the existence of the Zoll-Verein, or Customs Union, is due," Germany owes her first progress in manufactures to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and to the numerous refugees who brought with them the manufactures of woollens, silks, glass, china, gloves, jewellery, and many other articles."

The first public steps for the encouragement of German manufactures were taken by Austria and Prussia; in the former, under Charles VI. and Maria Theresa, but more

especially under Joseph II. Austria had previously suffered much from the expulsion of the Protestants, her most industrious inhabitants; nevertheless, by the aid of protective duties, improvements in the rearing of sheep, construction of roads, etc., the industrial arts made remarkable progress even under the reign of Maria Theresa; and still greater under that of Joseph II., in spite of the precipitation with which that monarch urged on measures of reform for which the country was not yet prepared.

Prussia had suffered much from the Thirty Years' War; her cloth manufacture had been almost annihilated, and the larger part of the manufacturers had transferred themselves to Saxony. At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, however, a great number of the fugitives, encouraged by the Great Elector, settled in Prussia, and introduced many new branches of industry. Succeeding rulers, especially Frederick II., promoted agriculture, and stimulated home manufactures, by means of a revenue system the provisions of which were of a highly protective character.

The Continental system of Napoleon, however, constitutes the great era in the history of German as well as of French industry; for under it commenced the forward progress of every kind of manufacture, with corresponding increase in the attention to the breeding of sheep, the production of wool, and the development of domestic commerce. "On the return of peace, however," continues List, the English, who had greatly improved their machinery, renewed their rivalry; and general ruin and distress ensued, especially in the country of the Lower Rhine, which after being for some years attached to France, now lost her markets. At length, in 1818, the cry of distress could no longer be unheeded, and now a Prussian tariff gave the protection needed against that inundation of English goods by means of which Great Britain sought to stifle in the cradle the industry of other nations.* Very moderate in its duties, this tariff had the merit of being specific, and not ad valorem, thus not only preventing frauds and smuggling, but also encouraging the production of those articles of coarse manufacture the quantity and bulk of which

* It was at this period that Mr., now Lord, Brougham, declared in his seat in the House of Commons, that " England could afford to bear some loss on the export of her goods, for the purpose of destroy ing foreign manufactures in the cradle;" and that the well-known liberal, Mr. Hume, also expressed the desire that "the manufactures of the Continent might be strangled in the cradle.”

gives them their great importance. This measure, however, was a heavy blow to the smaller States of Germany, already excluded from the markets of Austria, France, and England, many of which, too, were enclosed within the Prussian limits.

§ 2. Germany was, at that date, entirely disunited, each State having its local custom-houses. In 1819, however, Prussia effected an arrangement with Mecklenburg, SaxeWeimar, and other States, in virtue of which her tariff became the general one, and the internal custom-houses disappeared. Prussia continued her efforts for inducing other States to join in a general system, but for some time without effect; the opposition being headed by Hanover, then entirely under British influence, by Saxony, and by Hesse. At length, however, in 1831, Hesse joined the Prussian league, and from that day the German Union dates its existence.

Thus was accomplished the most important European movement of the present century. By means of it Northern Germany has become one great society, with entire freedom of circulation, its several States retaining their perfect individuality, governing themselves in their own manner, and possessing all the local centres of activity that had before existed. The effect is shown by the following facts:

In 1825 Germany exported to England alone 28,000,000 pounds of wool, mostly paid for by the return of the same wool in the form of cloth. In 1851 the net quantity imported into Germany was 25,000,000, and the quantity of cloth exported, was 12,000,000. Not less, thus, than 50,000,000 pounds has been added to the domestic consumption, a consequence of that approximation of the prices of raw materials and of finished merchandize by means of which the producer of food and of wool had become enabled to consume a much larger quantity of the commodities produced. The import of cotton, and cotton twist had, in the meantime, so largely grown, that the export of cotton cloth, more than ten years since, amounted to 159,241 cwts., leaving for domestic consumption, 1,200,000 cwts., and proving that while cloth had become cheap, the power of consumption among the agricultural population had greatly grown.

Thirty years since, Germany supplied the world with rags, and imported most of the paper for which she could make demand. Since then, the net import of rags has excceded 40,000,000 pounds, while the export of paper has

become very large. The prices of the two had greatly approximated, causing a home consumption that absorbed Lot merely the largely increased quantity of rags produced at home, but, in addition, more than thirty millions of pounds of those obtained from abroad.

In 1830 the total quantity of coal mined was but 8,200,000 tonnes, of 391 lbs. each. In 1854 it amounted to 46,000,000. In 1834 there were made 76,000 tons of bar iron. In 1850 the quantity had risen to 200,000, and that of pig iron to 600,000 tons. In 1849, not a furnace was to be seen in the neighborhood of Minden, Westphalia; "now," says a recent traveler, "they stand like towers about the broad plain." Of the numerous copper-mines of Prussia, a large proportion have been opened within the last few years. Every mine, mill, and furnace, aids in the improvement of the roads, the utilization of the powers of nature, and the development of individual faculties; thus increasing the value of man while diminishing that of all the commodities required for his use.

The value of the cotton and woollen goods exported in 1851 was $25,000,000, the chief part of which consisted of the food that had been combined with the wool in the process of converting it into cloth. As a consequence of this, the necessity for seeking abroad a market for food had so greatly diminished, that the net export from the country which thirty years since was regarded as the great granary of Europe, had fallen to 10,000,000 bushels.

Prussia has now a mile of railroad for every five square miles of surface; and local combination, as evidenced by the formation of joint stock companies for mining coal, making cloth, constructing roads, building steamers, or granting security against loss by fire, is increasing with a rapidity that is scarcely anywhere else exceeded. With every step in that direction local centres spring up, the demand for labor grows, and the farmer finds the market brought nearer to his door, with constantly increasing power to command the use of improved machinery-the societary motion, whatsoever its direction, being one of constant acceleration.

The facts above given prove conclusively—

I. That the prices of raw products have tended upwards, to the benefit of German farmers, and to that of the agricultural interest of the world at large:

II. That the prices of all manufactured commodities have tended downward, enabling the farmer to profit doubly: first, by obtaining more of the precious metals for his corn;

second, by obtaining more cloth for any given quantity of those metals:

III. That the reduction in the cost of conversion has been so great as to enable the German people largely to supply the world with food and wool in the form of cloth; and thus to aid the farmers everywhere in obtaining supplies of clothing:

IV. That the improved condition of German farmers has enabled them greatly to increase their demands upon the tropical countries for cotton, coffee, rice, and other rude products of the earth:

V. That under the system of Colbert, now adopted in that country, commerce grows steadily, with corresponding decline in the trader's power:

VI. That with the increase of commerce there has been a rapid increase of individuality in the great community that has now been formed, manifested by a steady and regular increase of public and private revenue.

These results correspond precisely, as the reader will perceive, with those obtained in France, Spain, and Denmark; while they are directly the reverse of those observed in Ireland and India, Turkey and Portugal, all of which latter are subjected to the British system.

§ 3. In no country has there been a more rapid increase than is here observed in the diversification of employment. Everywhere men are beginning to combine the labors of the workshop with those of the field and garden; thus benefiting their health by out-door labor, and adding to their comfort by the power of raising their own milk and vegetables; while the farmer, being enabled to raise a succession of crops, is placed more beyond the reach of those accidents by which those who are dependent on a single crop are so often ruined. Under these circumstances, every kind of soil is utilized, and agriculture becomes a science. "Everywhere," says an eminent agricultural writer, "there is a singular and increasing interest in the breeding of cattle," while "almost universal progress has been made in the cultivation of the soil."

The land is being more and more divided, and is highest in price where small properties are most numerous. "People of all classes," says Mr. Kay, in his excellent volumes on the Social Condition of the people of England and the Continent, "are able to become proprietors. Shopkeepers and the