COMMERCE. The foreign commerce of the Ger man Empire is subject to the regulations of the federal authorities, all of the States of the Em pire together with Luxemburg in the so-called Zollverein or Customs Union. Absolute free trade exists between the members of the Union and a uniform tariff is applied tot all goods coming to any of the States from foreign coun tries. In fact, the commercial regulations govern ing the Customs Union are exactly like those ap plying to the commercial relations of the indi vidual States of the United States, and of each of those to the Federal Government, with the single exception that in the United States all custom duties collected enter the Federal Treasury to be used solely by the Federal Government, while in the German Empire the surplus over a certain sum is distributed among the members of the Customs Union in proportion to their popula tion.
Germany is second only to Great Britain in the volume of foreign trade. In 1901 the com bined imports and exports of each of the three principal commercial countries of the world were: Great Britain, $4,353,000,000; Germany, $2,553,000,000; the United States, $2,284,000, 000. Unlike the United States, Germany im ports more goods than it exports. In consider ing statistics of German commerce it is necessary to distinguish between 'general commerce,' which includes all imports and exports entering or leaving Germany, and 'special commerce,' which includes only imports from foreign countries for consumption in Germany and exports of German products. The geographical position of Germany in the middle of Europe favors a large transit trade, which swells the difference between 'gen eral' and 'special' commerce to considerably more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year. The following table shows the growth of special com merce since the formation of the Empire: Thus the imports constitute about 56 per cent. of the total commerce and the exports 44 per cent. Owing to the enormous industrial progress in the last few decades, Germany has become an importer of foodstuffs and raw material, and an exporter of manufactured products. More than one-fourth of the total imports consist of foodstuffs and other articles of consumption; raw and manufactured textile materials, nearly two thirds of which is raw, constitute another fourth; manufacturing metals, one-third; and metal ore, less than 8 per cent.; the remainder is made up of fuel, fertilizers, and crude chemicals, fats and oils, lumber, leather, machinery, and live ani mals. The principal articles of export are tex tiles, 20 per cent. of the total; half finished and finished metals, manufactured food products, chemicals, machines, tools, and apparatus, coal and leather goods.
The history of the commercial relations of the German Empire with other countries may be divided into three periods: (1) that of free trade, (2) the tariff period, and (3) the treaty period. During the first period, which lasted from the foundation of the Empire to 1879, there was a strong tendency to free trade, and duties so far as levied affected only a small number of articles, and that very slightly, being raised mainly for revenue purposes. In 1879 a new customs tariff went into effect as the result of prolonged agitation on the part of the joint agri cultural and industrial forces, who were clamor ing for the protection of home industries. That tariff has undergone numerous changes since the year of its promulgation, but the most important change—the one which, marks the third period, since 1991—is that it has come to serve merely as an abstract basis for German foreign com mercial relations, the real controlling factor being the tariff treaty or convention with respec tive foreign countries. The general tariff is
called autonomous to it from the special or treaty tariff. According to existing methods every country which has a commercial treaty with Germany—and this is the case of nearly all countries of importance—enjoys the privilege of a much lower tariff than the autono mous one, in consideration of reciprocal conces sions made to German goods; but those countries which make any discrimination against German goods may be subjected to an additional tariff, which may amount to as much as 100 per cent. of the autonomous tariff on all products enumerated therein and a 20 per cent. ad valorem duty on all goods on the free list. With such a weapon in hand Germany has had little difficulty in making commercial treaties with all other nations.. The growing divergence of interests between the manufacturers and the landowners has, however, made the renewal of the treaties from 1904 an extremely difficult undertaking to German states men. See GERMANY in the article POLITICAL PARTIES. The chief countries participating in German trade are: three times as great in the last half of the decade 1891 to 1900 as in the first half, reaching the maximum value of $18,776,736 in 1900. Lard, copper, and oil are the next largest items of ex port, the first two having increased enormously from 1890 to 1900. The phenomenal increase also in the importation of American meats and fruits has served to add fuel to the fire of Ger man agrarian agitation against the encroach ments of the United States. Grouping American exports into five large classes, the increase in the last seven years of the nineteenth century is shown as follows: One of the most significant facts brought out by the above table is the' preeminence of the United States in the import trade of Germany. In 1880 the United States occupied the seventh place among the countries exporting into Ger many; in 1890 it moved up to the fourth, over taking France, Belgium, and the Netherlands; in 1900 it assumed the first place, outstripping Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. In the export trade of Germany, however, the United States occupies only third place, whereas in 1890 it occupied the second. In our own com merce Germany stands next to Great Britain, occupying the second place both in imports and exports, sending 11.4 per cent. of all our imports and taking 13.4 per cent. of our exports. But while the imports from Germany to the United States remained practically stationary throughout the closing decadeof the nineteenth century, our ex ports toGermany increased more than 100 per cent. during that period, as the following table shows: Cotton constitutes the most important of the American exports to Germany, the annual value fluctuating greatly, with a rising tendency, the value in 1900, $63,576,825, exceeding that of any earlier year. The annual export of corn was The stationary state of German exports to the United States is seen from the following table of the ten principal articles sent to this country: For an account of the colonial commerce of Germany, see COLONIES, in this article.