MANUFACTURES. The industrial progress of Germany has been so marked in the last quar ter of a century as to make that country second only in all Europe to Great Britain as a manu facturing State. In 1895 more than 20,000,000 people, or 39.1 per cent. of the' entire population, as compared with 16,000,000, or 35.5 per cent., in 1882, depended directly on manufactures and mining for a livelihood. About 8,000,000 persons, as against 6,000,000 in 1882, were engaged directly in industrial establishments. The census specifies 271 distinct industries, classed in 15 large groups, whose importance according to the numbers of establishments and employees is as shown in the table on the next page.
Thus there was an increase from 1882 to 1895 of nearly 35 per cent. in the number of persons employed, while the increase in population was less than l5 per cent. during the same period. According to the number of persons engaged the most important industry is clothing, the next in order of importance being the building trades and the manufacture of foods, with over a mil lion workers each; if we put the third (metal industry) and fourth (machine and instrument making) together, the combined metal industry ranks second only to the clothing industry; next to these and at the same time the most im portant feeder of the German export trade is the textile industry, which forms the oldest and most important of the German industrial arts. The chief localities for the cultivation and prep aration of flax and the weaving of linen fabrics are the mountain valleys of Silesia, Lusatia, Westphalia, the Harz, and Saxony (for thread laces) ; while cotton fabrics are made principally in Rhenish Prussia and Saxony. The same dis tricts, together with Pomerania and Bavaria, manufacture the choicest woolen fabrics, includ ing damasks and carpets. Since the formation of the Empire, the textile industries have made remarkable progress, and the German manufac tures now practically hold the home market, and Stettin, Hamburg, Bremen, and other seaports furnish a supply of merchant and navy vessels which occupy the highest place among the mer cantile navies of the world for speed, durability, and model equipment. Germany is the largest beet-sugar producing country in the world, its share of the world's produce exceeding 35 per export to South America, Australia, the East, and even to England. The growth of the cotton industry can be judged best from the increase of imports of raw cotton, which amounted to about 10,000 tons in 1840, 71,000 tons in 1871, and exceeded 313,000 tons (about 1,250,000 bales) in 1900. The silk industry and the manufacture of velvet thrive especially in Krefeld, Barmen, and Elber feld, besides Berlin, Baden, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Great progress has been made both in the quality and the quantity of the output, although in the higher grades France still remains unexcelled.
The iron and steel manufactures of Germany are among the most important in the world. The chief seats of this industry are Westphalia and Alsace-Lorraine, the Pennsylvania of Germany; next in importance are the district of Aix-la Chapelle, and isolated districts in Saxony, Wilrt temberg, Bavaria, and Hanover. Iron and steel fur naces, steel-mills for the manufacture of billets, rails, bars, plates, wire, and other kinds of struc tural and railroad material turn out their prod ucts in enormous and constantly increasing quan tities, not only for the domestic markets, but also for distant countries, in competition with Great Britain and the United States. The number of workmen thus employed increased from 164,000 in 1880 to 330,000 in 1900, or more than 100 per cent., producing 2,571,000 tons in the former year and nearly four times as much in the latter. While Germany turns out nearly all kinds of iron and steel products, it is, on the whole, be hind the United States and Great Britain, both in quantity and cheapness of its products. In certain branches, however, of the iron industry, Germany excels the rest of the world. In the hardware industry, the words 'Made in Ger many' branded on an article are universally accepted as a guaranty of excellence. This ap plies chiefly to knives, scissors, needles, weapons, and instruments of all kinds. German scientific instruments set the standard for precision and workmanship. The famous Krupp works, em ploying more than 40,000 workers, are the largest establishment in the world engaged in the manu facture of armor-plates, heavy artillery pieces and projectiles, boilers, engines, and all kinds of half-finished products required in their manu facturing. The shipyards of Danzig, Kid, cent. The principal seats of this industry are in Prussia, Brunswick, and Anhalt. The num ber of sugar manufactories increased from 311 in 1871 to 399 in 1900, while the output in creased from 263,000 tons in 1871, when it was but little over one-half of that of France, to 1,790,000 tons in 1900, more than double the out put of that country for the same year. The brew ing industry is another in which Germany stands unrivaled. The best beer is made in Bavaria ; numerous breweries, however, are to be found all over the Empire. Although the number of brew eries has been on the decrease, 11,564 in 1880, 8969 in 1890, and 7083 in 1899, the production increased more than 100 per cent. during the same period, being 556,500,000 gallons in 1880, 848,000,000 in 1890, and 1,139,500,000 in 1900. The distilling of alcohol is also increasing, the output having risen from 78,678,500 gallons in 1890 to 97,202,000 in 1900.