PRUSSIA. This important kingdom does not possess a great variety of natural pro ductions ; but it has all those the cultivation of which has been gradually introduced into central Europe ; and the most indispensable of them in sufficient abundance for its own consumption, and for the obtaining of foreign luxuries and comforts. Agriculture is the chief source of the national wealth, and is carried on with great care in most of the pro vinces. Wheat, rye, oats, and barley, are raised both for home consumption and ex portation; there are likewise peas, beans, vetches, millet, maize, rape-seed, and linseed. Potatoes are cultivated in all the provinces. Flax, hemp, hops, tobacco, succory, beet-root, and garden vegetables of all kinds are raised, but of the first three articles not enough for home consumption. The vineyards of Rhenish Prussia are extensive and valuable. There is abundance of timber. The mineral products are salt from salt-springs, of excellent quality, and in great abundance ; amber and coals in large quantities ; alum, vitriol, saltpetre, ala baster, basalt, granite, porphyry, marble, slate, freestone, chalk, lime, porcelain-clay, pipe clay, &c. The metallic products are silver, copper, lead, iron, zinc, cobalt, arsenic, and calamine. The precious stones are the onyx, agate, jasper, and carnelian.
The principal manufactures are :—Linen all the provinces, but chiefly in Silesia ; woollen cloths and cotton goods, especially in the pro vince of the Rhine, at Elberfield, Barmen, , Crefeld, &c.; silk, leather, iron, and copper ware, cutlery, articles of gold and silver, sue cory, paper, china, glass, earthenware, snuff and tobacco, beet-root sugar, gunpowder, &c. The breweries and brandy distilleries are very considerable.
The abundance of products of various kinds, and the active industry of the people, give occasion to an extensive commerce, which is highly favoured by the advantageous position of the country in the centre of Europe, groat extent of coast on the Baltic, and by the great rivers (the Rhine, the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula,) which traverse the country, and are connected by navigable tributary streams and numerous canals. In 1831 the
Prussian or Commercial League (Zollverein) commenced, and has since been gradually joined by almost all the German states. The object is to establish an entire freedom of trade among the German states, and to sub ject foreign trade to such restrictions only as the protection of national manufactures or the financial circumstances of the state may render necessary. Tho Prussian harbours ere :— Memel, Pillau, Neufahrwasser near Danzig, Stolpermiinde, Rfigenwald, Kammin, Sehwein emfinde, Peenemiinde, Griefswald, Stralsund, and Barth. The most considerable commer cial towns are :—Berlin, K5nigsberg, Danzig, Breslau, Stettin, Magdeburg, Cologne, Elber feld, and Aix-la-Chapelle. The great fairs are those of Breslau, Frankfort•on-the Oder, and Magdeburg. At present there are In Prussia about 1400 miles of railway open for traffic.
In the year 1840 the imports into Great Britain from Prussia were valued at 2,805,040f., and the exports of British and Irish produce and manufactures to Prussia were 428,748/. These sums may mislead, unless accompanied by a little explanation. The value of the im ports is official, that of the exports is declared. Official value means a certain hypothetical value which was fixed for each kind of com modity by the Custom-house authorities many generations since, and has been retained to this day, without any reference to present prices; whereas declared value is the actual marketable value at the time. Another cir cumstance is, that besides the British and Irish produce, England exports largely of foreign and colonial produce to Prussia.
The contributions of Prussia to the Great Exhibition are very numerous, and of a high degree of importance. They comprise almost every variety of manufactured goods, and na tural produce to the extent of the country's resources.