CONDITION OF CROPS IN GERMANY.

(From United States Consul Warner, Leipzig, Germany.)

The condition of the crops of the German Empire at the middle of June, 1903, compared with May, 1903, expressed in figures, 1 signifying very good, 2 good, 3 medium, and 4 poor, were as follows:

In general, it may be said that the winter-wheat crops did not suffer very much on account of the drought. Winter rye has already been harvested. The summer-grain crops, which suffered because. of the lack of rain and by reason of the large number of harvest flies, are later than usual. Their stalks are smaller than in former years, and there are more weeds. It is hoped that the recent rains will somewhat make amends for the damage done in the early season.

The dry weather retarded the growth of the potatoes, but since the rain they have come on very nicely. The early potatoes are smaller than usual. The first cut of clover was medium; the second promises to be no better. The first cut of meadow grass was satisfactory; the second looks as if it would be very poor. BRAINARD H. WARNER, Jr.,

LEIPZIG, GERMANY, July 30, 1903.

Consul.

GRAIN MOVEMENT IN

GERMANY.

(From United States Consul Diederich, Bremen, Germany.)

To American dealers in grain the following figures, showing Germany's importations and exportations of the various kinds of grain during the first six months of this current year, may prove interesting. It will be noted that comparatively little-only about onetenth-was exported.

The imports, in metric tons of 2,204 pounds avoirdupois, were:

The above quantities were imported from the following countries:

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: