In silver, gold, and jewelry work Augsburg and Nuremberg dispute with Munich and Berlin for prOminence, the manufacture of scientific and musical instruments being also important in these cities; while Berlin and Leipzig are among the leading cities of Europe in respect to type foundries, printing, and lithography. In the manufacture of rubber and gutta-percha goods, glass and pottery ware, clocks, and carved wooden specialties, Germany occupies a leading position. The chemical industry excels that of all other countries, and the same may be said of dyeing and bleaching works. Just as the technical prog ress made by German industries in the last three decades of the nineteenth century can be com pared only with that of the United States, so do the economic aspects of the industrial develop ments of Germany resemble most closely those of the United States. The chief feature in common is the growing concentration of industry. In no other country save the United States are the number and power of large industrial organ izations so great. While the census does not take notice of these forms of industrial and financial organizations, it brings out other facts which illustrate the tendency toward concen tration. For instance, it divides the manufactur ing establishments of the country into three prin cipal classes (besides a larger number of sub classes), viz. small establishments employing five persons or less; those of medium size employing from six to 50 persons; and, finally, large estab lishments with 50 or more employees. The fol lowing table (which includes mercantile as well as industrial establishments) illustrates the growth of each: ever, distributed over the country in closely knit groups, each centring around some large city; only in the north were the lines connected. Dur ing the next thirty years railway construction was pushed with great energy, with a view to covering, the old trade routes and important high ways. The following table shows the growth of
The figures show that both in the number of establishments and in number of people employed the progress was in proportion to the size of the establishments. Thus, while' the total num ber of establishments increased less than 5 per cent., the higher group increased as much as 90 per cent., the middle group nearly 70 per cent., the lowest barely holding its own. The same tendency is observed in the number of persons employed in each group. With all that, the figures show the preponderance of small indus tries, the largest number of people being em ployed in the lowest group. Moreover, consid erably more than one-half (nearly 60 per cent.) of those establishments employed no help. But while the number of persons engaged in that group constituted an absolute majority in 1882, it was only about 45 per cent. in 1895. On the other hand, the highest group, which employed between one-fourth and one-fifth of the total number of industrial workers in 1882, absorbed nearly one-third of the total number in 1895. The number of women and minors employed con stituted 18.4 per cent. and 6.1 per cent. respec tively of the total number of persons employed in 1895. The increased use of machinery is shown by the following figures: In 1882 only 4.7 per cent. of all the industrial establishments employed motive power outside .of human labor; in 1895 the percentage rose to 5.9. The prev alence of the small house industry is shown by the fact that in the textile industry not more than 5 per cent. of all the establishments em ployed motive power, although that figure repre sented an increase of 100 per cent. as compared with 1882.