ART. 3. To paragraph 80 of the law is to be added: The entrance duty for sugar, for which no bounty has been granted in the countries of origin, is, during the continuance of the agreement concluded in Brussels March 5, 1902, raised to the highest sum which is conceded according to the agreement.

The origin of the sugar must be stated on import.

ART. 4. Paragraph 81 of the law is repealed.

ART. 5. Sugar which has been received in a warehouse before this law goes into effect, if transferred to free circulation or to a sugar manufactory after the period mentioned, must repay the export bounty.

ART. 6. This law goes in force simultaneously with the agreement of March 5, 1902, concluded in Brussels between the Empire and a number of other countries, viz, September 1, 1903.

GERMAN

EXPORTS TO THE UNITED STATES.

Consul-General F. H. Mason, of Berlin, transmits the following statement showing the declared values of exports to the United States from Germany during the calendar years 1901 and 1902, respectively:

1898........

1899...

1900..

1901......

1902..

Total exports from Germany during the last five calendar years.

$83, 191, 015. 27 90, 916, 778. 17

103, 184, 654. 41

99, 616, 731. 73

114, 495, 502. 45

SWISS FACTORIES IN GERMANY.

It is reported from Basel that a number of manufacturers of watches are preparing to emigrate to Alsace, Germany. In the town of Hegenheim (a small place in Alsace, about 3 miles from Basel), two watch manufacturers have bought the sites for factories, and building is to commence at once; the works are expected to be in running order this fall. In St. Ludwig-a suburb of Basel, but on German territory-three watch manufacturers of Neuenburg have bought lots, where large establishments are to be erected; in Hueningen, a branch of a firm in Chaux de Fonds has been working for several years.

This tendency to move from their own country to Germany, on the part of the manufacturers of Swiss goods, is not new. Four large ribbon manufacturers, originally at Basel, have for years had branches with a number of workmen at St. Ludwig; two silk factories of Zurich have important establishments at Hueningen; in Loerrach, and in a number of places in the valley of the Wiesen, Basel manufacturers have branches. This erection of branch factories on German territory has the advantage of saving tariff fees and of employing labor at much cheaper rates than it can be found in Switzerland.

BAMBERG, February 2, 1903.

W. BARDEL,

Consul.

NEW COTTON EXCHANGE AT BREMEN.

Two things occurred in Bremen during the year just ended that were of interest to our people engaged in growing and selling cot

ton.

One was the opening of the Bremen Cotton Exchange and the other the publication of a book entitled Die Baumwolle (Cotton).

Next to Liverpool, Bremen is to-day the leading cotton market for this continent. Before the organization of the cotton exchange in 1872, German merchants had been getting their product chiefly from Havre and Liverpool, very little being imported direct. To become independent of British ports, it was necessary to get the patronage of the inland spinners. This proved no easy task. Not

until a decade had passed did the Bremen exchange cease to be a local institution and acquire a standing of national importance; but ever since the development has been phenomenal. While the importation of cotton in the year 1870 amounted to only 157,689 bales, it ran up to 397,998 bales in the year 1880. Ten years later there were 812,538 bales, and the year 1900 showed the enormous figure of 1,567,045 bales.

In showing the growth of these importations, the following table will prove of interest:

A proportion of this cotton is being continually classified and arbitrated on. The following figures are officially reported for the past four years:

The next table shows that fully two-thirds of the American cotton is arbitrated on upon its arrival here, before it passes into the hands of buyers:

The new cotton exchange is said to be not only the most imposing structure of this nature in the world, but also the most complete in the appointments necessary for carrying on the business of buying and selling cotton and supplying the leading merchants and brokers with office and sample rooms.

To celebrate its opening, the members of the exchange published a handsome volume (745 pages) entitled Die Baumwolle, which is probably the most complete work on the subject of cotton. It was compiled by Professor Oppel, of Bremen, who devoted years of the most careful study to this subject, extending his researches to every cotton-producing country.

BREMEN, January 11, 1903.

HENRY W. DIEDERICH,

Consul.

THE NORTH SEA FISHERIES.

The exploitation of the teeming resources of the North Sea contributes so greatly to the prosperity of the Humber ports of Hull and Grimsby that a brief history of its development and a description of the changes which the industry has undergone, especially during the past twenty years, can not fail to be of interest. From the earliest times, the fisheries of the east coast of Great Britain have engaged the energies of large numbers of people, both men and women, and legislative efforts have from time to time been made to stimulate the industry. In Scotland, especially, was this the case a century ago. Bounties were given by Parliament with, however, unsatisfactory results, as is pointed out in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. After the failure of repeated experiments of this kind, Parliament resolved to give the fisheries a free hand, and since that time the prosecution of the industry by the hardy Scotch fishermen prospered so greatly that, down to comparatively recent times, it ranked as the most lucrative and important branch of employment. Inasmuch as the Humber fishing industry is only indirectly related to the herring fishery, which forms the larger part of the Scottish. fishing industry, this part of the subject has only been slightly dealt with in the present report, although liberal use has been made of the wealth of facts stored in the pages of painstaking Scottish authorities, notably Professor M'Intosh, whose work, The Resources of the Sea, is a standard authority upon the scientific aspect of the question.

ADVENT OF THE STEAM TRAWLER.

Up to the eighties, the methods of fishing differed little from those pursued in primitive times. The application of steam to the boats was an idea which had not been put into operation, probably because the fishermen are of all classes in the country the most conservative in their habits. In 1879, some steam tugs employed in the Tyne and Wear were thrown partially idle, owing to the prevailing depression in the shipping trade, and, in order to augment their

earnings, the owners resolved to trawl in the inshore waters during periods of enforced leisure from employment of a more profitable kind. The result was that these improvised steam trawlers competed very successfully with the sailing vessels, so much so that the crews of the older vessels fiercely resented the newcomers. However, it was soon discovered that the tugs, being mostly of the paddle type, could not proceed far to sea; yet the remunerative nature of steam fishing had been demonstrated and capital was quickly forthcoming in order to build screw trawlers specially suited to the industry. At first, wood was the only material employed in construction, but the advantages of iron were early recognized, and later steel came into preference. The catching power of a modern steam trawler is esti mated by practical men as equal to that of at least eight or ten of the old sailing trawlers which, only twenty years ago, carried on fleeting operations in the North Sea. So striking an increase in the capacity of the boats could not fail to exercise an enormous influence upon the trade. In 1883, there sailed from the ports of Hull and Grimsby less than 20 steam fishing vessels and about 1,000 sailing trawlers, smacks, yawls, and luggers. Only four sailing vessels survive to preserve recollections of a past within the memory of the great majority of those interested in the trade. Lowestoft and Yarmouth made an effort to stem the tide of innovation by building sailing vessels of a more modern type; but these, too, have been disposed of and scattered among various continental ports where the old methods are still adhered to.

Official statistics bear out the effects of these revolutionary changes in the industry in a very striking fashion. In the first place, we see, as might be expected, that in consequence of the enormously increased efficiency of the vessels the total number of craft has declined. Taking England and Wales alone, the number of first-class boats-boats of 15 tons and upward-has fallen off from 3,809 in the year 1882 to 3,176 in 1900; but the number of men and boys constantly employed has only shrunk from 32,503 in 1890 to 31,589 in 1900. In Scotland, where the line-fishing industry at the small coast villages, so picturesquely described by Sir Walter Scott, has felt the pressure of the new competition acutely, the effects have been much more marked, the number of men and boys constantly employed having fallen off within the course of the last decade from 34,319 to 27,288, while the number occasionally employed has dropped from 20,829 to 10, 288, or more than one-half. In this fact may be seen the explanation of the outbreaks of feeling which the trawlers sometimes excite in northern waters, and also the continual agitation, of which more will be said at a later stage of this report, in favor of the legislative restriction of trawling in inshore waters.