COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION IN GERMANY.

(From United States Consul-General Hughes, Coburg, Germany.)

Germany suffered severely during the year ended June 30, 1903, for which this report is written, from a commercial crisis, and a short review of the causes leading thereto will, I hope, be of interest to those engaged or desiring to engage in business in this Empire.

CONDITIONS IN 1900.

The tide of commercial prosperity, which had been steadily rising in Germany from 1895 to 1899, began to ebb in the spring of 1900. In the money market the turning point occurred in April, as shown by the drop in the Harpener and Laura shares, criteria for the mining and smelting industries, respectively. These stood:

It will be noticed that of the two the Laura, or smelting industry, was most affected, the percentage of decline in value being approximately double that of the Harpener shares. Symptoms of the ebb showed themselves in a slackness of the textile and building trades. As a consequence of great activity in former years, prices of sites had risen and money was dear, the Imperial Bank's rate of discount ranging between 7 and 5 per cent during the first seven months of the year; hence little building was done and failures had to be chronicled here and there, as in Dresden and Munich, where the builders had continued operations on the same scale as during the flood-tide times. In Berlin, on the contrary, a house famine occurred, and the landlords reaped a rich harvest because of the disproportion between demand and supply. This inactivity naturally influenced the iron market. Beginning with April complaints were loud of a lack of orders for girders. Consumption in the iron, in the metal, and in the machine industries also fell off, and then came the turn of the carriage, cycle, and electric branches. In June Die Metallindustrie Zeitung stated that the demand in Germany had never been so weak as at that time. For a while the iron foundries and coal mines did good business, but toward the close of the year the ebb touched them, and the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate announced that from January 1 the output would be decreased by 10 per cent.

Dr. J. Jastrow shows how the depression mirrored itself in the labor market during 1898-1900:

October and onward saw workmen discharged in large numbers, mostly in the textile districts. Crefeld, a town of some 100,000 inhabitants, had on October 15, 1900, according to official statistics, 1,300 unemployed weavers and artisans.

CONDITIONS IN 1901.

Things grew worse in 1901 and the crisis was sharpened by the disproportion between the prices of raw material and manufactured products. The raw-stuff syndicates charged as before and refused. to recognize the altered conditions. Ever-increasing competition shackled the manufacturers; no new industrial concerns of any importance were founded in the spring, nor did a revival in the building trade take place. Stagnation manifested itself almost everywhere. Wages fell and diminution of output was the order of the day. In the mining branch a reduction of 20 per cent was certified; in the smelting industry, 35 per cent; in the textile industry, from 20 to 40 per cent (cotton-spinning mills); in the paper industry, 10 per cent; and in the wool industry, a minimum output. The number of the unemployed increased to such an extent that the Prussian, Bavarian, Hessian, and Baden governments separately instituted inquiries into the matter. Altogether, at the end of 1901, some 20 per cent of Germany's workmen were without employment. The number of applicants for every 100 vacancies during the first eleven months of 1901 was as follows:

CONDITIONS IN 1902.

At the beginning of 1902 the crisis became still further intensified by a collapse in the coal-mining industry and the consequent discharge of a great many miners. One district alone witnessed the dismissal of 10,000 men in the course of the first few months. The iron trade was kept going by forced sales abroad. The Phoenix Mining and Smelting Company printed in their annual report that they had been doing business with the United States at prices admitting of no profit. Upper Silesian and Rhenish Westphalian iron was sold at a loss. Works in Rhenish Westphalia-the smaller and more. loosely constructed works-were forced to take orders at almost any prices to keep fires in their furnaces. (TheUnited States stood Germany's iron industry in good stead in 1902.) Freight rates dropped for want of cargoes. The yearly report of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce says: "The regular lines complain of want of cargoes for their greatly increased fleets." The Association of Berlin Merchants and Manufacturers, in their report, could discern "no trustworthy signs of a change of affairs as a whole." Exceptions there were, as in some branches of the textile industry. Hermann Schüler, the Bochum banker, states that profits of most mines have gone back and that, owing to the extraordinarily low prices of lead and ores, a large number of works were on the verge of ruin at the end of the year." The great depression in the electric industry (firms. are amalgamating with a view of improving matters, and there is a general move in this direction) reacted upon the technical chemical. trade, although Germany's magnificent chemical industry failed to be affected by the general commercial conditions. Contrary to strong expectations, the closing of the Boer war had little or no effect on the situation-at any rate, nothing like that which was looked for. OLIVER J. D. HUGHES,

COBURG, GERMANY, August 13, 1903.

Consul-General.

LUDWIGSHAFEN INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION. (From United States Consul Harris, Mannheim, Germany.)

As a part of its first semicentennial celebration, the Bavarian town of Ludwigshafen, on the Rhine, has given for some weeks past an interesting industrial exhibition. The town has grown in fifty years from a village of about 1,000 inhabitants to a flourishing city. of 72,000. It is now the fifth city of Bavaria in population and the largest city of the palatinate. Its Rhine commerce amounted in 1901 to 1,763,000 tons.

The exposition, which is intended to be local in its character, includes especially articles manufactured in the city or for the sale of

which agencies are established there. Among the noticeable features of the exposition are, first of all, the extent and variety of the exhibits. Power is supplied by the management, and looms and wood-working and other machinery are exhibited in operation. American observer would notice, among other things

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1. The varied exhibits of Portland-cement work, paving and roofing tiles, and the excellent sewer pipe shown by the Deutsche Steinzeugwaarenfabrik für Canalisation und Chemische Industrie of Friedrichsfeld. The pipe has the characteristic threadlike grooves on the inside of the collar where the connections are made corresponding to similar grooves on the end to be inserted in the collar and suggesting the use of asphalt instead of cement at the connections.

2. The well-known types of American wood-working machinery and tools, such as spoke-turning lathes, band saws, and braces and bits. American screw-drivers, saws, taps, dies, and drills are exhibited by local dealers.

3. The heavy and clumsy character of the native shovel, trowel, pick, rake, ax, auger, and other implements as compared with the American product. The wooden handles are larger and not generally of as good wood as are those used by American tool makers. The exhibits in these and other lines show the preference given in Germany to strength and durability in tools. The light American buggy, light driving harness, easily handled American plow, harrow, cultivator, and shovel plow, the 15 or 20 cent rake, to be used for a season or two and then replaced by a new one-none of these are likely to be as popular here in the near future as they have long been in the United States.

4. The excellent display of bath tubs, closets, and modern sanitary plumbing, a branch in which Germany is making marked progress.

5. The most interesting single exhibit of the exposition is that of the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik. This company is engaged chiefly in the manufacture of coal-tar dyestuffs, including artificial indigo, and has largely made Ludwigshafen what it is. The company exhibits photographs, models, charts, and statistics relating to their business. Their plant itself is regarded in Germany as a model in construction and management. The concern, now in existence for more than twenty-five years, has never had a labor trouble and claims an unusually large average term of employment among its

men.

The following is taken from the statistics exhibited:

Area occupied by plant, 1,850,000 square meters (457 acres); office employees, 808; workmen, 7,458 (no women are employed); dynamos, for light and power, 11; electric motors, 297; telephone stations, 225; arc lights, 1,018; incandescent lamps, 15,000.

Total consumption per year.-Raw material, 163,000 tons; coal, 516,000 tons (Krupp, at Essen, 843,494 tons); gas, 22,700,000 cubic meters (city of Mannheim, with 145,000 inhabitants, 9,924,705 cubic meters); water, 4,100,000 cubic meters (city of Mannheim used 4.044,670 cubic meters in 1902).

The company owns 102 houses for office employees and 653 for workmen; 65 baths are provided for office employees, 534 for workmen, and 24 for women and children. To these are added a large casino with libraries and reading rooms, hospitals for employees and their families, girl's cooking and housekeeping school, etc. H. W. HARRIS, Consul.

MANNHEIM, GERMANY, August 14, 1903.

GERMAN-SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE.

(From United States Consul-General Hughes, Coburg, Germany.)

Argentine Republic.-According to official imperial German statistics just issued, the imports into Germany from the Argentine Republic in 1902 is given as 201,800,000 marks ($48,028,400), while Germany only exported thereto 47,200,000 marks' ($11,186,000) worth of her products. The importations from the Argentine Republic consisted of wool, hides and skins, wheat, maize, quebracho wood, linseed, bran, and sheep bladders and intestines; Germany exported thereto textiles and machinery chiefly. The imports from the Argentine Republic increased markedly as compared with the previous year, while the exports from Germany thereto showed a marked decrease.

Chile. The imports into Germany from Chile in 1902 consisted of saltpeter, gold, sole leather, iodine, raw copper, borax, honey, and wax, and were valued at 113,000,000 marks ($26,534,000); while Germany exported thereto 32,300,000 marks' ($7,687,400) worth of products, consisting principally of textile and iron products, guns and ammunition, glassware, pottery, and fancy and toilet articles.

Paraguay. The trade of Germany with Paraguay is very small, her exports thereto in 1902 amounting to only 915,000 marks' ($249,900) worth of goods, consisting chiefly of small machines and cotton and woolen goods. The imports from Paraguay during the same year amounted to only 452,000 marks' ($107,576) worth of tobacco, hides, etc.

Uruguay.-The exports from Germany to Uruguay in 1902 amounted to 11,800,000 marks ($2,808,400) and consisted of a large assortment of goods; the imports from Uruguay amounted to 12,900,000 marks ($3,070, 200), consisting of meat extracts, hides, skins, wool, etc.

Brazil. The exports from Germany to Brazil in 1902, consisting