• In a country where agriculture is so little under stood, neither manufactures nor commerce can be expected to flourish. Even the manufacture of wool len cloth, which, in such a climate as that of Bava ria, is one of the most 'necessary articles of dress, is almost entirely neglected. More than a century ago, 7000 pieces of cloth were annually fabricated in this country, whereas, at present, it can scarcely produce 5000. Westensieder, in his description of Alunich, gives an enumeration of the different tradesmen and artists there, which exhibits a very curious view of the preposterous and unnatural state of manufactures and the arts in that capital. It contain's eight en gravers, six chocolate makers, sixteen goldsmiths, seventeen varnishers, six bakers of gingerbread; twen ty-four • painters of the corps de maitrise, seventeen hairdressers; hut only two basket•inakers, two cloth painters, not a single weaver, six curriers, fifteen clothiers, seventeen spinners and carders of wool, and four persons who work in cotton stuffs. There is here a manufactory of tapestry en haute lLse, and angther in gold and silver lace ; they have been anxious to esta blish manufactures of silk, and to rear plantations of mulberry trees, while the native productions of the country arc neglected, and the use of them discouraged.
One of the chief articles of exportation from Ba ' varia is wood, which is floated down the rivers, and conveyed by, the Danube into Hungary, where it is in great request. Tobacco, which is manufactured. throughout the whole of this country, affords like wise a considerable traffic. The other articles of exportation are salt, which brings in about 5286,000 florins annually ; corn, of which only a very small quantity is exported ; iron, rough hides, raw wool, flax, and hemp.
The mountains of Bavaria contain quarries of marble, and some of them likewise produce iron, copper, silver, and vitriol. Alum and charcoal are likewise wrought in • this country ; and the mines of alum, when re-opened in the year 1767, were expect ed to yield 400 quintals of that mineral annually. How far these expectations have been realised, we have no opportunity of learning. A few pearls are fished in the neighbourhood of Kotzing and Regen ; but they do not appear to have yet attained full ma turity, and have neither the water nor hardness of those from the East. Of the salt pits of Bavaria, the most remarkable are those at Reichenhall, whose source is known by the name of the Bounty of God. They are wrought by very curious machinery, and the value of their weekly produce is about 500 guel ders.
The revenues of the electorate are of two kinds : the general revenues of the country, the management of which belongs to the states ; and the electoral re venues, which are administered by the officers of the elector. The general revenues of the country arise from a land-tax, called there stever, the amount of irhich is regulated by the states. From this tax no portion of the landed property is exempted, whether it belong. to the royal domain, to the clergy, the nobility, or to private individuals. All the estates within the duchy of Bavaria are divided into hoffs, or farms. The hoffs which belong to the domain, and to the nobi lity and clergy, are given in feu, some for life, some for two or three generations, and others in perpetui ty. It is on these farms that the tax is levied. The simple stover, or land-tax, consists of a twenty-fifth part of the net produce of each farm, a deduction being made for the feu-duty paid by the farmer, and the expense of culture ; but sometimes, in particular exigencies, two or three of these stevers are levied in one year. The electoral revenues arise from alie nation—fines, quit-rents, escheats, and other baro nial rights ; from the produce of the electoral brewe ries, and the duties imposed on the breweries of the barons and private individuals ; from the duties of entry on commodities consumed in the towns and boroughs, on foreign wine and tobacco ; from the customs on foreign articles of merchandise ; from the saltworks ; from coinage ; and from the produce of the forests. The whole annual amount of the reve
nues of the duchy of Bavaria, and of the upper pala tinate, is estimated at 12,000,000 florins.
Before proceeding to describe the government of Bavaria, it may be proper to give a short sketch of its history, tracing, as far as we are able, the succes sive steps by which it has arrived at its present state.
About 589 years .before the Christian era, the Boii, a people of Celtic Gaul, crossed the Rhine, and settled in Bohemia. Driven from that country by ' the Marcomanni, in the reign of Augustus, they I withdrew into Noricum, which thenceforth received the name of Boiaria, or Bajoaria, the country of the Boil. This word was afterwards, by a slight and natural alteration, corrupted into Bavaria, the name' which the country still retains. When the wide realms of the Franks were, in the sixth century, di vided among the four sons of Clodovic, Bavaria fell under the dominion of the kings of Austrasia, and was held in viceroyalty by dukes. The first of these dukes, of whom authors speak with certainty, was Gerbaud I., who lived under Clotarus, king of Aus trasia. His fourth successor Theodore II. divided into four parts the large province of Bavaria. He reserved to himself Ratisbon the capital, together with Noricum, and that part of the province which' stretched towards the east : to Theodebert, his eldest son, he gave that part which comprehended Rhetium, the principal town of which was called Bauzanum, or Bozen : Grimoald, his second son, obtained the Sundgau, or the southern part of the province, with the town of Freysingen : the Nordgau, or the north ern part of Bavaria, which included the town of Nuremberg, and what is now called the Upper Pala tinate, fell to the share of his third son Theobald. After the death of Theodon and his youngest son, the whole province was divided between the two surviving brothers. All the northern and central parts of this territory came into the possession of Theodebert ; while Grimoald obtained the southern division along with Rhetium. 'Theodebert was by his son Ugberg ; Ugberg by Ottilon ; and Ottilon by Tassilon II., who was the last duke of Bavaria, of the ancient family of the Agilsfingians. About the year 788, Tassilon was imprisoned in the abbey of Laurisheim by Charlemagne, king of the Franks, who seized upon his duchy, and delivered the government of it to some of his counts. In the division which was afterwards made of the monarchy of the Franks among the sons of Louis I., Bavaria, with the whole of Germany, was allotted to Lduis 6ermanieus, who took up his residence at Ratisbon. These territories being again divided by the sons of Germanicus in the year 876, Carlomannus became king of Bavaria, and was succeeded first by his brother Louis he Jenne, and afterwards by Charles le Gros, the youngest son of Carlomannus. When the states of the empire de posed Charles, and elected Arnold, the natural son of Carlomannus, as their monarch, Bavaria acknow ledged the sovereignty of Arnold, and afterwards of • his son Louis. In the year 920, Arnold the Mar, grave of Bavaria was made duke of that country by king Henry I. From that time it was successively possessed by Henry, brother of the emperor Otto the Great ; by Otto II., who was deprived of it for having attempted the life of Henry IV.; by his son-in-law Guelf; and by Henry the Proud, who, in the year 1138, lost both the duchy of Bavaria and that of Saxony, in consequence of his opposition to the election of Conrad Ill. Though his son Henry the Lion succeeded to the possession of these do mains, yet, as lie was placed under the ban of the empire by Charles I., he reserved only the lands of Luneburg, Brunswick, and Nordheim.