In 1861 the value of the whole imports amounted to 232,732,554 florins; that of the exports, 310,687,250 florins, distributed among the 22 classes of the custom tariff as follows: The commercial intercourse of the separate Dalmatian range of customs comprised, in 1861, in values of imports 7,997,684 florins; in values of exports. 4,490,731 florins. COMMERCIAL AND TRADE LAWS. In the whole empire exists perfect liberty of commerce and trade. Foreigners, too, are admitted to the absolute exercise of manufacturing and com mercial industry upon obtaining consent of the ministry. There are now but very few licensed trades for the exercise of which a special permission is necessary, mostly dependent on certain references or proofs of personal capacity. To such trades belong-the press; circulating libraries and reading-rooms; undertakings of periodical conveyance of persons; building trades; manufacture and sale of arms, munitions and fire-work materials; inns and taverns; commercial travellers; peddlers; finally, butchers in the military border-land. PATENTS. In order to animate progress in industry, discoveries, inventions, and improvements, if of recognized novelty, are distinguished by patents for a term not exceeding fifteen years, upon payment of a tax of from 21 to 735 florins, according to the duration of the patent. For patent articles to be introduced from abroad into Austria, an exclusive patent can be granted only if the same are still patented abroad, and such a grant can be bestowed only upon the proprietor or lawful claimant of the foreign patent. AUSTRIAN TARIFF OF DUTIES. Already in the year 1851 Austria abandoned the prohibitory system and adopted the protection system of duties. According to the latter, there are imposed low duties on products, especially on agricultural products imported from abroad; but higher import customs levied for manufactures and works of art. The export duties are insignificant; only some raw products have a higher duty laid on. Transit duties are but control duties. After the Hungarian and Croatian intermediate custom line having been abolished in 1850, Austria has been divided into two ranges of customs, one of which embraces Dalmatia; the other, the general range of customs, embraces the rest of the crown dependencies, except some custom exemptions, such as the free ports, Trieste, Venice, Fiume, Zengg, Carlopago, Portorè, Buccari, part of the town of Brody, in Galizia, and the community of Jungholz, in Tyrol. After the tariff and commercial treaty with Prussia, and the tariff union states of the German confederacy had, on the 19th day of February, 1853, been concluded for the term of twelve years, a new general Austrian tariff of duties was issued for the general Austrian range of customs. This tariff went into operation on the first of January, 1854, and contains, under twenty-two classes, the articles subject to duties. According to the diversity of the merchandise, the ratio for the tariff is adapted to the weight, measurement, or numbers. Austria has no ad valorem duty. By weight (zollcentner, tariff hundred weight) is to be understood, for import, partly the gross weight, partly the neat weight; but for export and transit, always the gross weight. It is necessitated by special, political, and national economical circumstances that free import and transit are interdicted, being permitted only on particular conditions, for culinary salt, gunpowder, tobacco, and its manufactories, the last being only imported duty free for the exchequer. 5 The following are wholly exempt from duties: Means of transport, packing cases, or casks; merchandise weighing under 1000 cwt., (less than 10 pound,) or such articles as are not rated higher than 1 kreutzers, Austrian currency; travelling effects, emigrants' property, newspapers, &c., &c. Free export is the rule. Exceptionally, only, some articles are subject to an export duty, viz: Leather-waste, horn and bones, (75 kreutzers per cwt. neat,) gall-nuts, wood for fuel, (42 kreutzers per hundred cubic feet,) some kinds of timber, sulphur, tartar, hair rags, (4 florins, 20 kreutzers,) cocoons, (13 florins, 12 kreutzers per cwt. gross.) Through special decisions concerning articles passing the line of customs, conditional exemptions from duty were introduced, viz: For corn sent or received for grinding, for articles sent or received to be dressed, refined, reformed, &c., or imported for uncertain sale. The amounts of duties are fixed in the imperial standard, and are now to be paid in silver. The official management attending duties is referred to 515 custom-houses, (chief and secondary offices,) at the frontiers as well as in the interior of the empire. In 1861 the total revenue of duties, additional fees included, amounted, in both ranges of customs, to the sum of about thirteen and a half millions florins. The total value of goods imported into the general Austrian range of customs in 1861 amounted to the sum of about 232,000,000 florins, but that of exported goods to 310,000,000 florins; consequently the value of the export in comparison to that of the import shows a plus of 78,000,000 florins. In the Dalmatian range of customs the value of imports amounted to about 8,000,000 florins; that of the export to about 4,500,000, whereby a much more unfavorable balance is resulting than of the general Austrian range of customs. LETTER POSTAGE. The postage for a simple letter (weighing half an ounce) is settled at three kreutzers, within the distance of the post office district; at five kreutzers, to the distance of ten miles; ten kreutzers, to the distance of twenty miles; and fifteen kreutzers, beyond this distance. Papers sent open, in paper bands, need a stamp of two kreutzers per half ounce; periodicals a one-kreutzer stamp. The following table exhibits the increase of post office transactions: In 1860 the whole of the Austrian railroads carried 142,147,128 tariff hundred weights. Of all the thirteen railroad companies of Austrian in 1860 the income was 66,000,000 florins; the expenses were 33,000,000 florins. PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS. Inland political journals.-German, 76; Bohemian, 8; Polish, 5: Sclavonian, 2; Servian, 2; Croatian, 3; Illyrian, 1; Ruthene, 2; Italian, 11; Hungarian, 15; East-Roman, 2; Greek, 1; Hebrew, 2. Total 130. Inland, not political periodicals.-German 162; Bohemian, 16; Polish 11; Sclavonian, 2; Servian, 5; Slovene, 4; Croatian, 4; Italian, 26; Hungarian, 47; East-Roman, 4. Total, 281. Sum total, 411. There are in Austria 28 public libraries of great extent, together with 1,819,630 volumes. TRIESTE. RICHARD HILDRETH, Consul. OCTOBER 22, 1862. In accordance with the "Consular Regulations" requiring the United States consular officers to transmit to the Department of State authentic commercial information respecting the trade between foreign countries and the United States, I have the honor to present, for the first time during my administration of this office, my yearly report for the port of Trieste. The value of merchandise imported at Trieste direct from the United States during the year 1861, calculated at official prices, amounted to 551,013 florins, about equal to $275,506, against 5,496,526 florins, equal to $2,748,263, in the year 1860, and the merchandise exported to the United States direct, during the same period, to 386,866 florins, about equal to $193,433, against 1,190,357 florins, equal to $595,178 in the year 1860. The annexed table shows the value of the whole imports and exports at Trieste during the year 1861. During the year 1861 twenty-one American vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 7,009 tons, arrived at Trieste, of which eleven came directly from the United States; eighteen of all these vessels left this port with cargoes, and the rest in ballast. The pending war has not been without a serious and depressing influence on the trade between Trieste and the United States. Formerly there came a considerable number of ships annually from our southern ports laden with cotton. Since the war broke out there have been no such arrivals. This, however, has been in part made up for by the increased number of ships employed in the carrying trade between Trieste and its dependent ports and the other ports of the Mediterranean. It also appears, from the increased number of currency certificates which the consul has been called on to sign, that the exports to the United States by the way of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liverpool, and the lines of ocean steamers, has considerably increased. The principal articles of exportation to the United States are rags, currants, plums, gums, cuttle-fish bones, and sponges. The chief articles of export from Trieste to European ports are wine, flour, staves, and timber, principally to France and England, though many cargoes of flour are sent to Brazil. The currency is still the depreciated bank paper, the value of which, however, has been very steady the present year. At present the paper florin of Austria is daily increasing in value, there being to-day only 18 per cent. difference between silver and paper. VENICE.-W. D. HOWELLS, Consul. SEPTEMBER 30, 1862. I have the honor herewith to transmit the annual report on the commerce of this consular district for the year 1861. Annual report for the year 1861, from the consulate of Venice. So little change has taken place either in the nature or amount of the commerce of Venice, that in the following report I shall have few facts of importance to add to those communicated by my predecessors during several years past. The natural causes which reduced Venice from her position as the capital of the commercial world to that of a sea-port of minor importance still exist; and, by an apparent fatality, the very privileges created for her advantage have operated in partially diverting from her the trade which would still have sought its old channels, and thus further contributing to her decadence. (I allude particularly here to her trade in oils, that mostly has begun to seek outlets at Ancona, Ravenna, and other ports of the kingdom of Italy, where the duties of the free port of Venice are not levied upon it.) Other supposed or actual reasons for the city's want of prosperity are not within the scope of a commercial relation, and need not be specially referred to here. I condense from different sources the following succinct statement of the amount of navigation and commerce during the year 1861: ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES. Whole number of vessels arriving during the year.. 3,788 3,756 364,792 374,015 Of these vessels, 2,694, of a total tonnage of 287,993, were Austrian. The greatest number from any foreign state was 127, from the states of the church. The greatest total of tonnage was that of Turk vessels, being 15,033. In this year there were arrivals and departures of three American vessels, only one of which came direct from the United States. Their combined tonnage was 955. Total value of imports.. Total value of exports.. Value of imports and exports. Greatest value of imports from any nation, viz: Great Britain.... The most valuable imports and exports were: Florins. 39,145,189 16,982,508 5,681,236 2,717,864 |