COM MERCY.. The commerce of is facili tated by her central position and by the network of river and canal navigation. which make her territories the connecting medium between several of the great European States. and give her a free outlet to the rest of the world. Yearly markets are held in about •370n town.. See GERMANY. paragraph on Comm, B.lyEEse. The banking system of Prussia does not differ from that of the rest of the German Empire. (See GER NLA NY. paragraph on Banking.) The Imperial Bank acts as the fiscal agent of the kingdon Prussia occupies a commanding IN dol) in the banking world of Germany. since Ber lin is the most important financial centre of the country. The eleven great corporate banks of Berlin (not including private banks like Bleich ri;der, etc.) do almo-t as great a business a- the Imperial Bank of 1;ermany. with its 300 branches. In the cloning year of the nineteenth century the combined volume of business done by the Berlin banks was about 155.000.000000 mark- (nearly as compared with 180.000,0110. 000 mark- done by the Imperial Bank. The capi tal stock of the eleven hank- of Berlin ha- in creased about five-fold -inee their foundation. an
the combined volume of business, estimated at about 155.000,000.000 mark ( allowing 20.11111). 000.000 for the three bank- not reporting). was about 13s times as large as their available working ear ital. The leading bank is the Deutsche Bank, with a capital -tuck of 150.000. 000 mark-. Each of the Berlin banks show- a larger capitalization than that of any national hank in the United States and compares very favorably with the bank- of France. An im portant financial institution is the Prussian Maritime A--ociation (seebandhur 1. founded by Frederick the Great in the middle of the 'ei hteenth century. It was the chief financial support of the l'ru--ian Government for more than a century. until the font ation of the German Em pire, and was intrusted with the investment of the enormous war contribution exacted from France. It is the prototype of the 'erAlit mob'. lief institution- which found such favor during the nineteenth century in France and other (-rin trie-. It- activity may be seen from the fact that with a capital stock of than 39.000.000 marks it had a--et- exeeeding 520)00.000 marks.