The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

THE ZOLLVEREIN.

BIRMINGHAM, Saturday.
A special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce
was held yesterday afternoon for the purpose of
receiving Mr Ward, her Majesty's Consul General
at Hamburg, who has been commissioned by the
Government to confer with the Chambers of Can'.
merce in reference to the new tariff of the German
Customs Union. Mr J. S. Wright, vice-president
of the Chamber, presided.
A letter was read from Mr Scholefield, M.P., ex-
pressive of regret at his inability to be present. In
the course of it the hon. gentleman said :—" The
step adopted by the Foreign-office in authorising
Mr Ward to visit the several chambers is deserving
of all praise, and will open up, I hope, a wide
field of usefulness for that department of her
Majesty's Government, as well as for the consular
and other agents abroad."

The CHAIRMAN, in introducing Mr Ward, said
that gentleman would address the meeting chiefly
on the question of the new duties that were about

to be reimposed or modified in the new arrange-
ments entered into by the States composing the
German Customs Union. They had a considerable
trade with Germany 30 or 40 years ago, which has
since declined. Until lately very few other manu-
factures had found their way into the Zollverein•
One cause of this was the high, the almost prohibi-
tive tariff which prevailed, and another cause was
the rapid advance which the Germans themselves
had made in manufactures. Now, the Germans not
only supplied their own markets but competed very
successfully with the English in the neutral mar-
kets of the world. There was one question to which
he would call the attention of Mr Ward, which
was that of trade marks. (Hear, hear.) The ques-
tion of trade marks, both in France and Germany
was in a very unsatisfactory condition.

Mr WARD said the chairman had correctly stated
the object for which he had the honour of appear-
ing before the Chamber. It was, in the first place,
to state the exact position in which the commercial
relations with the Zollverein and Germany were'
at the present moment ; and, in the second place, to
ask for suggestions from the Chamber to be used as
opportunity might occur with the Governments of
the States of the Zollverein. They were aware the
Zollverein was an old institution now—having
existed between 30 and 40 years—conducted prin-
cipally on the principle of a protective tariff, which
excluded from the German market more especially
the metallic industry and hardware. Still, from
time to time improvements had been made. He
had resided for many years in Germany, and had
been accustomed to attend the conferences
of that body, and report to the Government
the new tariffs made from time to time; and
although the state of things at present was far from
baing satisfactory, yet he thought that the progress
made had been something great, and such as not to
exclude hope of still further improvement in the
future. The principle acted upon was—unanimity.
Every State, whether large or small, had an equal
vote in settling the tariff and all questions which
related to the affairs of the union. Therefore, the
smaller States, such as Nassau, had as much to say
as Prussia or Bavaria, or the other large States.
This was a principle which had been very much con-
tested and disputed ; and a feeling had been grow-
ing up that it ongat to be by the decision of the
majority, the larger States having a preponderating
influence, that the question should be settled. A t
present it had not come to that, and the ZJllverein
had been renewed upon the old basis and upon a
new tariff. This would now be the law f,r the next
12 years, and would come into effect on the Ist of
July, 1865, most likely. The reductions which had
been made iu consequence of the French Treaty
were many of them of very great importance. The
negotiations with France had been going on now
between three and four years. As soon as our Go-
vernment heard of it, he (Mr Ward) had instructions
to proceed to Berlin, and open negotiations with the
Prussian Government, on behalf of British interests.
They were asked whether they came to offer any
equivalents, or what was the object of their pro-
posal. They were obliged to say that the English
tariff having been lately liberalised, they had no
specific reduction to offer, but relied upon the reduc-
tions which had been made in favour of every
nation, benefiting Germany as well as other
nations, and that so good an example would not be
lost sight of by the statesmen of Germany. The
negotiations Came to nothing more than this—that
the States of the Zollverein agreed to put England
on the same footing as France and the most
favoured nation. In a few weeks the treaty
would be signed, which would place England on
the same footing as the most favoured. This was
not all that it was desirable to effect, but all that
it was in the power of the Government to accom-
plish. There were some merchants who thought it
was in the power of the British Government, by
making specific proposals during the course of the
negotiations with France, to accomplish more ; but
he assured the Chamber that it was not possible to
have done more at the time. Various suggestions
on the subject were then made by himself and
others, but they were taken as private hints, and
were put by in the portfolios of the officials, ad re-
ferendum. In some instances some little good re-
sulted. tJp to the present time Prussia and the
Zollverein had been guided by their own interests,
and not those of any other nation. The moving
principle was that they could get certain impor-
tant concessions from France, which they had no ei
got, and through the intervention'ef France a tariff
had been secured, by which considerable modifica-
tions of duties agreed to with France would he en-
joyed by Great Britain and other nations. The re.
solutions had already passed the Prussian Chambers:
and they were to be incorporated into a general
law. The Chamber had received a copy of the last
arrangement, and also the alterations as agreed to
in the new tariff. This was dated 28th of June,
1864, and was a treaty between all the States of the
Zollverein, in which they renewed their union for a
period of 12 years, upon the basis of that regula-
tion, and, in addition, upon the basis of the French
treaty, which formed a part of the new arrange-
ment. They would find that the reductions were
upon many important branches ; cotton yarn manu-
facture, woollen yarn and manufacture, iron and
iron manufacture, and generally upon other metal-
lies ; on zinc and zinc manufactures, upon hard-
ware, upon chemical products, and various other
articles certain important reductions had been
made. He was sorry to say that the Germans
had misunderstood their own interests, inasmuch as
they had refused to admit pig iron duty free, al-
though the agriculturists were almost clamorous to
have British pig iron admitted. There was also a
classed reduction upon iron manufacture, divided
into coarse and fine articles. The reduction upon
the finer iron manufacture was from 6 dole. to 4 dole.
per centner. The duty upon steel pens was retained ;
this amounted to 10 dols., which he supposed to be
out of deference to the steel pen makers of Germany.
Under the general head of hardware there had bsen
a large reduction, inasmuch as all articles are not
mixed with gold and silver, all metallic articles, and
all ornamental articles, were reduced from 50 dole.
to 15 dols. per centner (1121 b.) Also upon machinery
and upon instruments the reductions were very
considerable. He considered that these alterations
were very important, though they did not go as far
as they might wish. They had always said to the
authorities that they ought not to look upon their
little nest of manufactures, but take large views
and see the very, excellent effect which the adoption