Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

The importations from the United States consisted of a cargo of gum and resin, valued at 24,700 florins. No direct exportations to the United States were made during the year 1861, the shipments of goods for America being usually made to Liverpool for transhipment thence.

(a.) The reasons for the decrease in the direct importations from the United States (which consisted chiefly of tobacco in leaf) are curious enough in consideration of the blockade of the ports of our principal tobacco-raising States. Formerly many American vessels were employed in bringing raw sugar from the West Indies, but the policy of the imperial royal government in fostering the manufacture of beet-root sugar has affected the business of sugar refineries, and with it this branch of the carrying trade. American vessels now visiting this port usually bring cargoes of coal from Great Britain, or stock-fish from more northern ports. Their course hence is usually for Fiume, where staves are loaded for Bordeaux.

The imports and exports of Venice by land and river for 1861 were:

Exports.. Imports..

Florins 23,163,928 19,420,497

The chief articles of this commerce are: oil, wine, grain, lumber, glass, tobacco, stuff for clothing, flax, hemp, &c., &c.

The whole value of exports by sea, river and land, during 1861, was 17,281,108 florins less than during the previous year; the value of imports 9,488,498 florins less.

The articles prohibited to be imported are: tobacco, salt, and gunpowder, which are monopolies of the government.

SHIPPING.

The total tonnage of vessels owned in whole or in part at Venice, Chiagqia, and Palestrina, is 25,588. The number of vessels is 146. Of course these vessels are small, and they are principally employed in the coast trade. The tonnage of the largest is but 556. During 1861 five vessels were built within this consular district, two at Venice and three at Chiagqia. The decline of Venice as a point of ship-building importance has been the most rapid during the last ten years. As a naval post it is no longer favored by the imperial government, a new navy yard having been established. The regulations of the port in regard to shipping have been communicated to me by the I. R. captain of the port. American vessels, as belonging to a favored nation, are placed upon the same footing in respect to port dues as vessels belonging to Austria. Tonnage dues are 0.105 florins a ton if the vessel exceed 100 tons; 0.07 florins if from 50 to 100 tons; 0.035 florins if less than 50 tons. Vessels of non-favored nations pay 1.05 florins a ton. Favored nations pay a sanitary tax of 9.06 florins, and nonfavored 12.355 florins, without distinction as to amount of tonnage. The lighthouse, 0.14 florins a ton for vessels arriving from beyond the Adriatic gulf; cruising from Trieste, 0.05 florins. The port dues, therefore, amount in all to about sixteen cents on the ton. Vessels incur an expense of about twenty-five cents a ton for city dues, wharfage, lighterage, &c. Coopering, gauging, &c., &c., is according to agreement.

Captains of vessels are required to call and report at the health office on entering the port. A consular bill of health is usually required in the case of vessels destined for ports of Great Britain.

No changes of importance have taken place in the sanitary regulations of this port since 1851.

MANUFACTURES.

No capital of citizens of the United States is, so far as I can learn, employed in Venice. The manufacturing interests of the city are not great, and are chiefly occupied in the production of articles peculiar to the place, such as glass beads, Venetian jewelry, conchylic or shell work, &c., &c. The bead company is wealthy and prosperous, and have branch houses in most parts of the world, though none in the United States. The fabric of beads and other kinds of glass gives employment to a considerable number of artisans; but all exact information concerning the extent of the business is as jealously withheld as the peculiar secrets of the manufacture. In 1860 glass beads and glass of the value of 3,461,983 florins were exported; in 1861, of the value of 3,374,780 florins. Several houses are engaged in the manufacture of the objects of Venice, formed of sea shells and beads, wrought into various articles of jewelry. The chief house thus engaged exports to the value of 7,000 florins annually, and the trade is increasing. The fabric of Venetian chains of gold still forms a limited branch of industry. Some manufactories of cream of tartar, recently in operation here, have been discontinued, and the two sugar refineries of the city, for reasons before indicated, have suspended their business.

AGRICULTURE.

Among the causes more recently operating to reduce the prosperity of the Venetian kingdom, the failure of the wine and silk crops for several successive years is, undoubtedly, the first. The same malady which so disastrously affected the wine in Greece, Southern Italy, and France, has been met by the same remedy-the application of sulphur in fine powder or in solution. It is generally preferred in the dry state, and is applied three times a year. "The first application is made when the shoots of the vine are two or three inches in length; and this sulphuration should cover all the green parts of the vine. The second when the grape blossoms, sulphurating thoroughly the fruit and moderately the leaves and twigs. The third when the grapes are of the size of peas and begin to change color." (I have thought that these notices of the grape disease and its treatment in Venice would prove interesting to our own wine-growers of the west.) The disease manifests itself upon the vines as a parasitic growth, (like small mushrooms in appearance,) which covers the surface of the parts affected, and gradually absorbs the vital juices. If the disease reaches the grapes themselves they swell and burst. The sulphur cure is considered to have been successful in Venetia, and a good vintage is expected for the present year--1862. The wine from grapes effectively treated with sulphur is said to have no sulphurous taste. The sulphur, which must be applied on still, warm days, and renewed if beaten away by wind or rain, must be very fine. The best method for application is that of a bellows, provided with muzzles of various shapes and lengths, which are perforated and lined with wire gauze inside.

The malady of the silk worms is now also disappearing, after the introduction of worms from China, India, and other silk-raising countries had proved a failure. The importance of the silk interest to Venetia may be estimated from the fact that, in 1861, when the malady was very serious there, still one million of Venetian pounds of silk were produced in the kingdom.*

MINING.

There is nothing of importance to report of mining beyond what has been previously done, except the fact that, in the copper most recently dug at

a percentage of silver has been found in the ore, increasing the value of the net yield from five to ten per cent.

• Twelve ounces avoirdupois to the pound.

POPULATION.

No census of the population of Venice has taken place since 1860. The figures in the report for that year were as follows: Total population, including strangers, 123, 103; exclusive of strangers, 113,127. The population of the kingdom, including the city, has been estimated at 2,292,159. Of the whole number of the inhabitants of Venice about 46,847 have employment of some kind. In 1857, when the population, exclusive of the garrison, was 122,893, the number of those denominated poor was 32,740; and of this number 11,100 individuals were dependent upon daily relief. I suppose that the same estimates would not misrepresent the actual state of the population.

PRUSSIA.

STETTIN-CHARLES J. SUNDELL, Consul.

MARCH 31, 1862.

Deriving superior advantages from extended inland communications, both by rivers, canals, and railroads, penetrating the whole of the "Zollverein" in every direction, and stretching forth through Saxonia, into Siberia, Poland, and Austria, Stettin is necessarily becoming one of the most important commercial Baltic places; located, as it is, in the very heart of the richly grain-producing province of "Pomerania," with the alike fertile "Posen" for next neighbor, and connected, through far-spreading sea-coasts, with Scandinavia and Russia, its trade and shipping has already assumed vast proportions. It would seem, nevertheless, and it is the opinion of sagacious mercantile men, that the trade of Stettin from inevitable causes must, to its greatest parts, be restricted to the inland, to continental Europe, to Great Britain, and the Baltic coast, and that it will hardly, if ever, be able to enter into any formidable competition with Bremen and Hamburg in the transatlantic trade.

Accessible from the North sea only through the circuit of the sound, icc-bound during three months of the year, and, from the depth of the "Oder,” not enabled to receive sea-going crafts drawing over 143 feet of water, (those drawing more having partly to discharge at Swinemunde,) Stettin will but sparsely be visited by merchantmen from the Atlantic and other distant countries. Again: and although the commerce of Stettin, taken altogether, embraces very large sums of money, the same is so much divided up between individuals that here are hardly any heavy capitalists to be found who could enter successfully into the colonial importation and transatlantic business.

Direct trade with the United States, to some extent, will, for all that, spring up anew, and ought to be hopefully cultivated, as there are certain commodities of American production among those enumerated below, which will, at most times, find a market here when offered at reasonable prices, and vessels of a certain class could be profitably employed in the carrying thereof.

American vessels should not calculate on back freight direct from this place, but rather on freighting or ballasting either to Dantzic and other Baltic ports, or else to Britain or France, from whence freight to America seldom is wanting.

Formerly a good number of United States vessels entered here yearly, bringing either whale oil, rosin, dyewood, and turpentine from there, or raw sugars from the West Indies, and coffee from Brazil. But the price of the first article having advanced so much that it could not be purchased any longer, it has been replaced by the flax and the rapeseed oil, now extensively manufac tured in this country; and from a singular protection given the fabrication of

sugar made from the white-beet root, a discovery deserving its own chapter, the importation of India sugar has become almost prohibited all over the German

states.

Since the introduction of beet-root sugar within the "Zollverein" much thought has been devoted to the subject, and frequent conventions have exhausted themselves in deliberations over how to raise sufficient revenue from the product, and at the same time protect the manufacturers thereof. In the latter they have undoubtedly succeeded, but the people have now a poorer sugar at higher prices than before, and it is being demonstated that the Prussian government now receives some two million thalers less in revenue from the article (sugar) than during the time when colonial sugar was imported. Thus we have the significant fact of how a comparatively few favored individuals are allowed to grow rich at the expense of the national treasury and the people at large. is now thought, however, that when, with the termination of the present "Zollverein" in 1865, this protection also shall have ceased, it will not be reestablised again on the same terms, but the beet root then be left to compete with other saccharine matters, and colonial sugars will once more be brought to the German markets. It is also argued that, with a change in the Prussian ministry in favor of free trade, the protection of the beet root fabrication, as far as Prussia is concerned, would at once be slackened so as to allow other sugars to come in for competition.

It

The grain trade of Stettin, one of its chief arteries, has, during the last years, attained very considerable extensions. The large transports of wheat, and also rye, from the interior, occasioned by the abundant crops of 1860, found, in consequence of insufficient supplies in Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Scandinavia, a very spirited demand during 1861, and by which the husbandman was enabled to empty his well-filled granaries at remunerative prices. Of the following principal products exported in 1861, were, of wheat, 108,118 wispels, (wispel about 40 bushels,) at a price ranging from 79 to 86 Prussian thalers per wispel. Of rye, 27,168 wispels, at from 44 to 52 thalers; of barley, 21,036 wispels, at from 38 to 46 thalers; of mill products, (such as flour, meal, grits, &c.,) 139,434 centners, (1 centner about 120 pounds;) of alcohol or spirit, 42,558 centners; of zine, 335,975 centners; of rapeseed oil, 70,077 centners; of timber, lumber, &c., for home and ship building, &c., 541,577 pieces; of sleepers and ties, 44,528 pieces; of masts, 117 pieces.

Most of the wheat was sent to England, namely, 63,211 wispels, and to France 35,037 wispels. Scandanavia received most of the rye, and of the barley, Britain and Belgium. England and France were also the largest purchasers here of timber, lumber, &c.; and of rapeseed oil, most of it was sent to Westphalia, the Rhine provinces, and also Britain; of spirit, the largest parts to Sardinia, Sweden, and Netherlands; of zinc, to Great Britain, Hamburg, and France.

Wool-growing and export of woollen fabrics made in Prussia is a very extensive industry of the kingdom, and the wool produced is mostly of a superior quality, comparing well with the English Australian article. The quantity grown all over Prussia amounts to some forty millions pounds annually, of which only about four millions pounds comes to this market, the principal places for sale of wool being Berlin and Breslau. The production is, nevertheless, not sufficient for the vast consumption, so that large quantities of the ordinary and inferior grades are yearly imported from Poland and Russia; also some Australian from England and Hamburg. The export of wool from this port during the last year was 3,003 centners, mostly to Britain, France, and Scandinavia, while the import here of inferior grades was 13,790 centners, nearly all from Russia.

From the great advantages of superior inland communications, Stettin is from year to year vastly increasing its "transito" trade; so much so, that want of

storage is already being seriously felt; and of all the colonial products arriving, some seventy per cent. are only received and handled here, to be despatched to its real destinations in the interior.

Of the large quantities of raw cotton, mostly American, coming to this place, none is received direct from the United States, but the greatest part from Britain, who also delivers most of the cotton twist consumed throughout the "Zollverein." By inquiring for the reason why Stettin receives all the raw cotton from second, or rather from third hands, in Britain and elsewhere, instead of getting it, like the Hanse Towns, direct from where produced, it has been answered that the cotton trade, or rather handling, is so new to Stettin, having existed only since the abolishing of the sound dues, that no connexions with the cotton interest in America has as yet been made; and as it also fails Stettin on banking facilities by which to pay American bills directly and at advantage, the intimate connexions with Great Britain, therefore, has rendered it easier in those respects to get the article from there for the present; but those drawbacks having once been removed, direct importations of raw cotton from America are sure to follow.

Now, these seem small obstacles, and with peace and harmony restored throughout the Union again, I think holders of cotton there should not lose sight of this port entirely, which yet, in its cotton-trade infancy, already this last year received over twenty-five million pounds of the article, although it is true that most of all this quantity only passed here "transitu" to the interior, having been purchased at the English, and some at Bremen depots by the consumers themselves, and but very little by Stettin houses. The trade could, nevertheless, be gradually secured for America through the medium of the forwarders and other parties in Stettin.

As already alluded to, but a small part of colonial products are really purchased for this place, but most of it paying duties and charges here. Passing further on, the importers and "bona fide" holders of such articles are therefore but few in this place. Among those, the most prominent and reliable films are: Albert de la Barre, F. C. Ludwitz, Lindan & Bartels, William Schlutow, (hold cotton,) Schultz & Lübeke, Müller & Lübeke, a. o.; rice, coffee, dyewood, and rosin, being the principal articles imported and held by those firms. A periodical decrease in the importation of rosin and turpentine having taken place during the last year from the sudden and high rise in prices, but little has been done in these specialities. Turpentine has partly been replaced by a kind of oil extracted from the spruce or fir tree, and coming here largely from Poland, under the name of kichnoel;" so likewise with rosin, having risen more than 300 per cent. within a short time. The soap manufacturers, as the largest consumers, are now using in its place a substance taken from the potato and its shell or peels.

Those are, nevertheless, articles well adapted for this market; so also with dyewood, potash, quercitron, lard, timothy seed, and hidester. Lard, for instance, is an article the consumption of which is just beginning, and will steadily increase here. From the high prices of butter, it is used largely by the poorer classes entirely instead of that. For other purposes it is also used instead of cocoa-nut oil, which article has risen to a high figure of late. The receipts of lard here during last year amounted to more than 7,000 centners, against none at all the year previous. Most of it came from Hungary, and some from England, but was mostly sold for American lard, which is justly considered the best, and could be readily disposed of at this place. With the coming in of the new year I hear of some considerable orders for the article having gone forward to America.

Assorted cargoes, therefore, of those products from the United States, including cotton and rice, when prices are moderate and ocean freights reasonable, would at most times find a market at this place; and the American merchant,

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »