pier maché, and toy manufacturers, depend entirely on the paper trade for the supply of the principal raw material employed by them.

The following figures, indeed, speak plainly for the extent and importance of some of those branches of manufacture: 110 paper-hanging manufactories employ 2,000 workmen; 230 manufactories of colored paper, card board, gilt borders, and portfolios, about 4,000 workmen; 140 of pasteboard and papier maché, about 2,000 workmen; and 80 manufacturers of playing cards, about 500.

Finally, I beg to add that besides other substitutes for rags in the manufacture of paper, such as wood, straw, &c., as yet tried without any lasting success, recently maize or Indian corn has been tried for the same purpose. Should this invention, which might turn out of peculiar advantage for our country, not be known there yet, and particulars about it desirable to your department, I beg you to notify me and I shall try to obtain the needful information.

JULY 24, 1862.

I have the honor to hand you herewith a statement of the exports to the United States of America during the quarter ending the 30th of June, showing not only the exports from this territory, but also those from my consular districts generally. I am happy to state that it presents a considerable increase when compared with the corresponding quarter of last year. This is, no doubt, the consequence of the fact that about two months ago confidence in American affairs gradually commenced to increase again. It is, however, a question whether this favorable disposition will continue for the next time to come, as already now universal complaints of the manufacturers and exporters of this neighborhood are heard about the effects of the new tax and tariff bill, of course, so much injurious to their prospects.

Statement of sundry articles exported to the United States of America from March 31, 1862, to June 30, 1862.

In compliance with the consular regulations, I have the honor to transmit herewith, marked I, in five packages, the "General annual report on the commerce, industry, agriculture, &c., of the free city of Frankfort."

I beg to remark that the same contains many particulars referring to several other States, included in my consular district, which I thought proper to incorporate in this report, in order to avoid repetitions and elongations in the others. *

OCTOBER 18, 1862.

Nassau.

Hanover.

Total.

I.

General annual report on the commerce, industry, agriculture, •&c., of the free city of Frankfort.

The past year has been memorable for one great event, which has attracted the attention of the world, as evincing the industrial competition existing between all the civilized nations of the globe, and the improvement in commerce, art and agriculture, and their contributing largely to the progress of material as well as social prosperity. I mean the international exhibition which took place in London. Our own country, impeded by the unfortunate embarrassment of her political organization, was not represented there so advantageously as it could have been under ordinary circumstances, but all the states of Europe were represented in their fullest extent, from the larger ones, celebrated for activity and improvement of manufacture in its highest degree, down to those little republican communities which, like Frankfort, have been, as yet, but little known for their industry, irrespectively of their financial importance as money markets. I therefore beg to commence this report with some remarks on the share which the manufacturers of this free city had in that great exhibition, representing the civilization of the world.

It is evident that, although a few of the most celebrated firms of this city took no part in the exhibition, those houses which did contribute afford abundant proofs that science, art and industry have, since the termination of the first exhibition, made, as elsewhere, great progress in Frankfort, and have won for it that practical importance which had long been denied to it. By the side of that power, of which Frankfort had for centuries been proud, has been developed another power. The labor of thousands of workshops has led to results which. deserve more esteem and admiration than all the wonders of stock-jobbing and speculation. Labor has gained the ascendancy over capital. It is now felt, even in the great money markets themselves, that labor affords greater blessings than speculation in the "rise" and "fall," and in all the artificial manœuvres of the stock exchange, by which capital passes from one hand into the other, without adding to national wealth or the prosperity of the mass of the people.

*

Frankfort was well represented, by twenty-nine exhibitors, in all the various branches of its industrial activity. With regard, however, to the activity itself of the manufacturers, and the profit they derived from it, the result is by no means favorable, as the political state of affairs during the last twelve months has continued to discourage all extensive undertakings of industry or commerce. I have already stated, on several occasions, that the best criterion in that respect is the result of the two half-yearly fairs held here in spring and autumn. On the not very satisfactory result of the Easter fair I had the honor to report, under date of the 2d May last. The success of the autumn fair, which ended on the 16th of September, may be termed a little more favorable. But this is usually the case, as the demands for winter are always greater than those for the summer season.

The wholesale business was of less importance even than it ever was before. Circumstances generally are now very much altered, to the great disadvantage of such institutions as fairs, &c. Steam power and the electric wire have brought the different nations into such near proximity that they form, as it were, one family. If one member of this family group is afflicted, all the others suffer with it. Twenty years ago the journey from Frankfort to Paris cost as much in trouble and expense, and nearly in time, as a trip now does from Frankfort to New York. It can no longer be said now that a war among the people of distant nations does not concern us. On the contrary, what is suffered in one country is felt in another by the interruption of international and commercial intercourse. An example of which is to be seen in our own civil war, which

has inflicted such severe wounds on the industry and commerce of the whole world, and from the effects of which it will require a considerable time to

recover.

Against such disadvantageous circumstances the last fair had to contend, and, in particular, the news which arrived just at the time of the fair was not calculated to raise hopes of a speedy termination of the calamity which had already exercised such an unfavorable influence on the cotton trade. All kinds of cotton goods have experienced an advance of from 25 to 40 per cent., and many articles of even 50 per cent., as sarcenets and shirtings, which two last were, notwithstanding, in great demand, and sold well. The fact is, the wholesale dealers, who were rather extensively supplied, sold their goods at a lower price than they are now able to procure them themselves. For calicoes, too, the demand was great at advanced prices. They have risen from three to four kreutzers a yard, and will rise still higher, as long as there is no arrival of cotton from America, of which there is at present no prospect. Those of Saxony, where the manufacture of these half woollen textures is very far advanced, sold the best, especially fine autumn and winter stuffs, and fancy articles in general. There is an impression that if the German-French treaty of commerce, so much spoken of just now, were completed, it would be of great advantage to Saxony.

A new branch of industry in Frankfort, which is rather extensively carried on, the manufacture of shirts, was for the first time represented at this fair. Hundreds of females are employed in this branch of work.

Hardware, especially buttons, had a very good sale, and the new articles of this kind, which appear almost daily, will still continue to be sought for, as novelty is always in demand. A glance at the buttons on men's and women's dresses shows the astonishing progress made in this branch. They are all decorated with different buttons, wood, horn, bone, glass, mother of pearl, brass, platinum, pinchbeck, gold and silver, stone, camels', goats', and horse hair, wool, and silk, being the materials used for their manufacture.

We have seldom had a summer in which the almost tropical heat has lasted with so little interruption. This was very favorable for the straw hat manufacturers, who therefore did much business, and deservedly, as their goods might, in many instances, have stood the competition of the factories of Florence. Of ladies' straw bonnets, especially, there were some very tasteful samples of Frankfort make in the market.

Silks showed some decline in prices, notwithstanding the scarcity of material in Italy. There were large supplies in store, owing to the entire stoppage of exports to the United States, in ordinary times the best customer for these articles. The best business was done in smooth blacks, taffeta, and levantine, both of Crefeld and of Lyons manufacture.

Buckskin and cloth, especially those of heavy Netherland make, sold tolerably well, but less so than formerly,, when plainer articles were required. At present only heavy articles and with patterns are in demand, as this branch has become a mere fancy business. Of English goods rather fair sales were realized in Orleans, alpacas, mixed, and paramatas, notwithstanding the prices had advanced from three to four shillings per piece. These articles will, no doubt, rise still higher, as they can only be woven with the finest warp-yarns, for which Indian and Egyptian cotton is too hard and short.

Ribbons and flowers also sold well, and the taste for these articles seems daily extending. But they are made mostly by foreigners, and little is done, as yet, in this branch in the states of the Zollverein.

I must beg to notice one new article, which is stored up in the warehouses of manufacturers in hundreds of thousands-photograph albums; a speculation which is intimately connected with our present war. There is a fashion in

Europe, bordering on a mania, for preserving the likenesses of friends and cele

brated personages in the form of photographs. It may be reasonably expected that the relations of soldiers slain on the battle-field will introduce this practice into America, and facilitate the disposal of these albums, of which so large a number has been prepared in advance, mostly of superior design and workmanship.

As to linen goods, those from Bielefeld and Silesia sold rather well, cotton goods and shirtings being enormously high, so that the public has to content itself with linen, which, at least, is more durable, and therefore not much dearer, just now, than cotton.

The leather business, usually the most important in the whole fair, was less so than in former years, as the supply did not correspond to the demand. The prices of tanned sole leather bring too small a profit to the manufacturer, so that these articles have of late been prepared in smaller quantities, or, at least, are kept back in expectation of better prices. The supplies, however, which were brought into market sold very rapidly, but though good (foreign) wild sole leather brought a few more thalers a quintal, (domestic,) tame sole leather scarcely realized former prices. Better prices were given for cow leather, harness, neats', and calf leather, but, altogether, calf leather had the best sale, and cow leather the worst. The wholesale prices were as follows per centner,

thalers at 90 or 60 cents:

Do., inferior quality.

Tame sole leather, heavy goods.

Thalers.

Five and six-skin well-shaped, strong wild sole leather, first quality.

62-65

Do., lighter kinds, first quality...

58-60

53-57

55-58

50-54

54-62

100-115

64-70

54-60

Do........lighter..

Cow leather, according to quality.

Calf leather, brown...

Neats' leather.....

Harness leather, black, according to quality.

Calf leather, black, grained and stamped.

Sheep leather, in alum and tanned, sold from 5 to 10 per cent. higher.

84-98

A very interesting work has lately been published by Baron O. V. Anfsess, one of the chief comptrollers of the custom-house, on the "commercial and general trade of the city of Frankfort since it joined the 'Zollverein;'" that is, during the period from 1836 to 1860. From this work I beg to subjoin a few statistical items.

During that period there were received at the custom-house office here 37,444,638 florins, of which ninety-five per cent. were for import duty, amounting to three and one-half per cent. on the total receipts of the "Zollverein."

With regard to the total importation of goods to Frankfort from the year 1837 to 1860, there had been an increase from 913,517 quintals in 1837 to 5,447,126 quintals in 1858. Compared with 1858, the two last years show a marked decrease in 1859 only 4,032,793, and in 1860 only 4,134,109 quintals. The traffic by draught carriages had attained its greatest height-772,891 quintalsin 1845, and had fallen in 1860 to about 158,700 quintals. In the place of draught carriages railway traffic rose in proportion. The Hanau line reached its maximum-842,832 quintals-in 1858, to fall to 525,833 quintals the next year, partly owing to the unfavorable state of trade in 1859, and partly owing to the Rhine-Main line competing. In 1860, however, it again rose to 777,871 quintals. The other lines also reached their greatest height in 1858; the Taunus railway, with 1,017,443 quintals; the Main Weser, 1,530,406, and the Main Neckar, 602,855 quintals. The traffic by water, on the other hand, to which the coal traffic is principally intrusted, is much less subject to these fluctuations. This traffic amounted in 1855 to 1,364,524; in 1854 to 1,294,000; in 1858 to 1,257,114; in 1856 to 1,238,133, and in 1860 to 1,100,000 quintals. Of this

amount there were, in 1860, 666,240; in 1854, 636,390, and in 1855, 622,488 quintals of coal.

The annexed table, marked A, shows the receipt of the "Zollverein" for import, export, and transit duties in 1861, compared with those of the preceding year. I insert this table and the explanatory remarks on it here, as not only Frankfort, but also the greater part of the states included in my consular district-Hanover, Baden, Electoral Hesse, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau-belong to the Zollverein, and are interested in its proceedings.

The receipts of the custom-house, under the three several heads of import, export, and transit duty, afford together, compared with the year 1860, an increase of 805,919 rix thalers, caused by the larger receipt of import duty. On the other hand, there has been a deficit, viz: in the exports, 76,410 rix thalers; in the transit duties, 378,794 rix thalers; total, 455,204 rix thalers; thus showing the above surplus of 805,912, which, in percentage, is equal to an increase of receipts on the past year of somewhat more than three per cent.

With regard to the several heads of custom receipts, the following may be remarked:

After deduction being made of the register-compensation, drawback, and compensation for exported goods, (of which the latter have in this year experienced a serious decrease from 205,366 to 161,923 rix thalers,) and then with the exemptions and allowance for fair and sound duties, the gross receipts, as set forth in the balance sheet, amounted

in the year 1861, affording an excess of more than 5 per cent. over the receipts of the previous year.

This generally favorable result, in comparison with the past year, is the more important, as in the year 1861 the unfavorable state of the times much impeded the peaceable development of commercial undertakings and the natural extension of trade relations. In this respect the unfortunate discords in the United States have been particularly influential, by withdrawing from their regular channel the usual export articles of this country, and especially in the second half of the year, to such a degree that the consumption, partly owing to the immoderate price of the raw material, partly from the decrease in the exportation of manufactured goods, was subject to the most fearful limitations. If then, notwithstanding the results of last year were satisfactory, still more favorable results may be fairly expected, provided the political difficulties subside, and peace is restored between the contending parties in the United States. As regards the surplus receipts of import duty in the several states of the Zollverein, compared with the year 1860, it appears from the annexed statement that, with the exception of Luxembourg and Brunswick, an increase has taken place in all the states, the greatest being in Wurtemberg and Baden, where it amounted to 10 per cent. In Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Electoral Hesse, Oldenburg, Nassau and Frankfort on the Main, the increase in receipts has partially fallen short of this proportion; whilst in Hanover, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and in Thuringia, it surpasses the receipts of the preceding year only by a very trifling amount. Here, however, it must be remarked that the last year's receipts in Thuringia showed a deficit of 5 per cent., while in the other two states there was an increase in 1860. In Luxembourg, the receipts, which in 1859 had risen almost one-half, began to fall, and in Brunswick they had nearly returned to the same amount to which they had risen in 1860.

A glance at the articles paying import duty, as per annexed table, marked B, shows us that the increase in receipts arises chiefly from the larger imports of