Iii.—: The Prussian Zollverein in 1840 By Richard Cobden

This remarkable letter, which has never been reprinted since its publication in the Anti-Corn-Law Circular, testifies to the statesmanlike sagacity of the leader of the Manchester School and contrasts with the narrow ignorance that has so often dominated our Foreign Office especially in regard to commercial movements abroad. The customs laws of Prussia were consolidated and simplified in 1818, and ten years later Hesse-Darmstadt joined the Prussian Union, to be followed in 1833 by Bavaria and Würtemberg and (reluctantly) by Saxony and the smaller states. The formation of the Zollverein was in itself, as Cobden saw, very advantageous not only to Germany but to all countries which traded with her, the customs tariff being lower than most of the separate tariffs which previously existed in thirty-eight different states and cities. His prediction that tariff reductions in England would lead to a more liberal policy in Germany was also verified, and for many years Germany became one of our principal sources of food supply, sending us in 1877 no less than 7,000,000 cwt. of wheat and flour. And at the present time the empire of Germany appears among the three or four best customers of British manufactured goods.