Starch sugar was produced in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1881, by forty-five factories (against forty-four in the preceding year), converting 1,000,740 cwt. of wet starch and 25,198 cwt. of dry starch into 233,015 cwt. of solid starch sugar, 355,784 cwt. of starch-sugar sirup, and 16,924 cwt. of coloring for brandy, &c. SPIRITS AND BEER MANUFACTURE. For the manufacture of spirits the following materials were, in 1880 used by the 27,682 distilleries in Germany (the returns give measures both of capacity and weight), viz: Of potatoes, 60,300,022 bushels and 896,480 cwt.; of corn, flour, starch, 14,110,647 bushels and 765,721 cwt.; of molasses, 22,272,422 gallons and 1,618,105 cwt.; of brewery waste, &c., 246,878 bushels; of wine, yeast, &c., 16,287,500 gallons; of fruit, 426,113 bushels, besides certain other material of no importance. The quantity of spirits obtained is estimated at 530,925,010 gallons. A statement of beer statistics of Germany for the years 1872-1876, and the fiscal years ending March 31, 1879 and 1880, are given in Exhibit D. EXHIBIT D.-Beer statistics of Germany for the calendar years 1872-1876, and the fiscal years ending March 31, 1878, 1879, and 1880. Branch of industry. MANUFACTURES. To show the distribution of industrial classes of Germany in occupations, the number of journeymen and machines employed, the table here submitted marked Exhibit E has been prepared from the latest obtainable official returns. Most persons are employed in the clothing and millinery industry, 1,053,142; 926,767 in the textile industry; 419,752 in metal working and metallurgy, and 322,029 in machine, &c.: EXHIBIT E.-Statement showing the industrial classes of Germany distributed in the following occupations, and the number of machines used. Iron and steel.-While the last year did not fulfill all the hopes, yet many branches experienced considerable improvement, especially the manufacture of agricultural machines and implements, for which Russia, Roumania, and Austro-Hungary are always good customers. Sewingmachines found a ready sale, but only at slack prices, the competition in this line being too great. Manufactures of iron sold in the first months of the year very briskly and at high prices, but the result of the whole year turned out to be of no greater moment than that of 1879. The tables marked Exhibits F and G, made up from official statistics, show the quantities consumed of pit and brown coal in the years 1872 to 1879, and of raw iron for a period of twenty years, from 1860 to 1879. Eleven to fifty. Fifty-one and more. Stationary boilers. Stationary machines. Transportable boilers and engines. EXHIBIT F.-Table showing the quantities of coal used within the German Zollverein in the years 1872 to 1879. EXHIBIT G.-Table showing the quantities of raw iron consumed within the German Zollverein in the years 1860-1879. industry that a Never before, it In 1881 reports come from all quarters of the iron general improvement in the iron market has set in. is stated, have so large and frequent orders been filled for railway, shipbuilding and other building companies. With the exception of raw iron, malleable iron in rods, locomotives, and machines, there was an increase of exports over imports for the first eight months of this year. The largest decrease took place in scrap iron and iron waste, coarse articles of iron, rolled tubes and pipes of wrought iron. follows per 100 kilograms = 2.2 cwt.: The new invention of eliminating magnesium from chloride of magnesium is reported to be destined to play a great part in the industries interested, for the reason that hitherto no fully suitable fire-poof basic material was to be had to overcome the obstacle in the way of a more general utilization, and a more extended application of the process of dephosphorization of iron. Though the fact of the incombustibility of magnesium is not new, yet it is a new thing now to be enabled to manufacture in mass a technically pure product, and at a cheap price, too, from a stuff that hitherto was nothing but waste, making the river beds filthy. An increased activity is also reported of tool manufactories, they being supplied with orders by sugar-factories, distilleries, breweries, and mills, which mostly, owing to the depression of business in late years, re frained from fitting up their establishments with more appropriate tools of latest invention and make. Recently Italian railways have ordered 31,000 tons of rails from several iron-producing establishments. The manufacture of brass fetched higher prices in the first part of 1880, perhaps owing to the higher quotations of copper. The zinc-plate industry in Germany gave work to a great number of small manufacturers, though prices were not steady nor always profitable. Table H gives an account of the definite quantities of zinc consumed in the years 1872-1879; later dates were not obtainable. EXHIBIT H.-Table showing the quantities of zinc used within the German Zollverein in the years 1872-1879. Textiles. As to the textile industry, many complaints of the decrease of exports are made, and which is attributed to the insufficiency of the protection afforded by the new tariff on cotton and linen yarns, linen goods, &c.; foreign competitors still having the control of the German market. And so also in 1881 the exports of the cotton industry experienced a considerable falling off, of about 30 per cent., especially in raw and bleached dyed yarns of one or two threads, while Vicogue yarn shows an increase of exports. The quantities of cotton yarns consumed in the years 1854 to 1879 are shown in table I. EXHIBIT I.-Table showing the quantity of cotton yarns consumed in Germany for the years 1854-1879. Wool. The wool trade may best be illustrated by the figures in the subjoined table, showing that the domestic production could not by far supply the quantities of wool in demand. Among the importing countries for 1880 must, in the first place, be mentioned Entered by the port of Hamburg (from what countries not stated). Sheep.-The latest official census of sheep states their number in the empire at 24,999,406 head, including lambs. |