general at Paris, and the reports from our several consular officers throughout France, also herewith transmitted, will show the trade and industrial particulars of the various consulates in that country.

Germany. The results of the spirit of speculation and indiscriminate investment in uninvestigated projects which seized hold of the public mind immediately after the conclusion of the Franco-German war, and which led to so much commercial and financial depression and disarrangement in Germany, were still severely felt in 1876. Reduction in consumption and production; precaution, amounting almost to timidity, in extending credit; a falling market; reduced and unprofitable manufacture, and consequent reduction in the employment of labor, were the marked characteristics of the year. But the staid and comprehensive mind of the nation, which was borne away, by seductive promises of unlimited profits, into the wild sea of speculation, as above noted, has returned to its old stability; and while the year 1876 brought no im. provement on the trade of the preceding year, 1877 has given promise that Germany will soon emerge from the depression which has deranged her commerce and industries for the past six years.

Owing to the fact that no account of the value of exports is kept at the custom-houses, no very trustworthy particulars can be given concerning the exports from Germany; and as the imports are credited to the respective frontiers-Austria, the Netherlands, Prussia, Belgium, &c.-from whence they enter Germany, neither can the countries of their production be given.

According to the report from our consul-general at Berlin, the imports of Germany during 1876 were as follows:

Statement showing the kind and value of imports into the German Zollverein during the calendar year 1876. *

Cereals and mill-ground grain

Fermented liquors

Sugar, coffee, spices, confectionery, &c............
Tobacco and manufactures of tobacco..

..........

Felt-materials, hair, feathers, hides, leather

.........

......

Drugs, chemicals, and dye-stuffs.

Resin, gums, fats, ether, and soaps...

Articles manufactured by rope-makers, textile fabrics, wearing apparel.

Yarns

$145, 656, 000 24, 014, 200 107, 338, 000 37,842,000 34, 676, 600 107, 195, 200 15, 565, 200 17,588, 200 19,968, 200 8,020, 600 22, 491,000 5,764, 360 9, 282, 000 50, 551, 200 58,786, 000 55, 216, 000 10, 614, 800 166, 838,000 62, 594, 000

Manufactures of India rubber, waxed cloth..

Paper, pasteboard, and manufactures thereof, paper-hangings

Timber, lumber, wood for building, and manufactures of cork, whalebone, ivory, and similar materials....

Wooden wares, carved wares, and basket wares

Machines, vehicles, vessels, musical and scientific instruments

This table of imports was prepared for the vice-consul-general of the United States at Berlin, at the Imperial Bureau of Statistics of that city.

Germany, which some few years ago showed an excess in the export of cereals, now imports cereals largely in excess of her exports of the same.

The increase in the imports for 1876 was chiefly in grain, groceries, raw metals, drugs, hides and skins, yarns, and textile fabrics. The increase in the exports during the same year was in woven goods, grain, cattle, materials for spinning (cotton, flax, hemp, silk, &c).

The trade of Germany with the principal countries for the years 1875 and 1876, compiled from the official reports of those countries, was as follows:

The cultivation of beet-root and its manufacture into sugar is one of the principal industries of Germany. The production of German beetsugar was much less for 1876-'77 than for preceding year, but greater than the production of 1874-75. The production for three years was: 1874-75, 5,128,547 cwts.; 1875–76, 7,160,964 cwts.; 1876-77, 5,800,000 The following statement will give an idea of the magnitude of this industry in Europe:

cwts.

There can scarcely be any doubt but that if our agriculturists and manufacturers turned their attention to the cultivation of the beet-root Report of the United States consul-general at Berlin.

† Estimated.

and its manufacture into sugar-an industry which has assumed such large proportions in the commerce of Europe-it would result in profit to themselves, add to the volume and variety of our industries and manufactures, and inaugurate an economy which would be appreciated in every household in the land by reducing the price of an article of universal use, and of which the United States consumes some 36 pounds per capita, a far larger proportion than in any other country in the world.

The trade between Germany and the United States for five years (ending June 30), 1873-1877, was as follows:

It will be seen by the above statement that while the imports from the United States for 1877 have nearly reached the imports for 1874a year when the trade between both countries was unusually largethe exports to the United States for 1877 were only very little more than one-half of the exports for 1874.

This continued and heavy decrease in the exports to the United States has become a source of great uneasiness to the German manufacturers, and much feeling prevails in many of the manufacturing districts in regard to what is considered a discrimination against their goods in our market, while the German market is open to the products of the United States. It is clear, however, that the decrease in the exports of German manufactures to the United States is due, principally, to the development of American manufactures.

The dispatches in reply to the trade circulars, printed in the appendix to Foreign Relations, will give some idea of the state of feeling which prevails in Germany in regard to the trade of that country with the United States, especially in regard to the decrease of exports to the United States.

With regard to the nature and quality of the articles of trade between both countries, it may be stated that the entire list of exports from Germany to the United States is composed of fancy manufactured articles, while over 90 per cent. of her imports from the United States is composed of crude or natural products, viz: Cotton, $14,000,000; kerosene, $8,500,000; lard-the greater part of which is manufactured into a sort of artificial butter called "schmalz," which is extensively used in Germany-$6,000,000; tobacco, over $5,000,000; bacon, hams, beef, breadstuffs, &c., over $3,500,000. The only imports of manufactured articles into Germany from the United States, are, leather, $1,500,000; agricultural machines, $500,000; sewing machines, $350,000, with an insignificant amount of minor manufactures.

Taking into consideration the extent of the whole trade of Germany and the United States, and the social and commercial relations existing between both nations, there is undoubtedly room for the enlargement of our trade with that country. Our exports of breadstuffs-which, for the year ending June 30, 1877, a favorable year for our trade, amounted to only $3,500,000-should be vastly more than they are; while the ac knowledged superiority of our manufactures, and the field which seems

to be open for their use in Germany, lead to the conclusion that it only requires wise and judicious exertions on the part of our manufacturers and exporters to increase this branch of our trade to respectable proportions. Details concerning the special manufactures most suitable for the German market and the best means for their introduction therein, will be lound in the published reports in the appendix to Foreign Relations for 1877.

For further details concerning the trade and industries of Germany, I take pleasure in referring you to the several accompanying reports from our consular officers in that country, especially to the report of the consulgeneral at Berlin upon the trade and industries of Germany for 1876 and 1877; to the full and interesting reports from the consul-general at Frankfort-on-the-Main, upon the co-operative societies of Germany, and upon the railroads, telegraphs, mining industries, banks and banking system of that country; and to the graphic report of the consul at Dresden, upon the results of the Franco-German war as they affected the commerce of Germany from 1872 to 1877.

Great Britain.-The total imports into the United Kingdom during the year 1876, amounted to $1,823,252,000, an increase of more than $13,400,000 over the preceding year; the exports therefrom amounted to $1,247,934,000, a decrease from 1875 of $120,700,000. Of her total imports her colonies contributed the amount of $409,856,000, about $450,000 less than for 1875; while foreign countries contributed $1,413,340,000, an increase over 1875 of $13,877,000. Of her total exports her colonies received $339,526,000, a decrease from 1875 of $31,700,000; while her total exports to foreign countries amounted to $903,272,000, a decrease from 1875 of $89,000,000.

A remarkable feature in the trade of Great Britain-a feature which has already attracted the serious attention of her leading newspapers and public men-has been the steady increase in her imports and, latterly, the alarming decrease in her exports.

In 1859 the imports into the United Kingdom amounted to $870,826,000. A very steady increase was maintained from that time up to 1876; the total increase amounting to $952,425,611. Thus her imports have more than doubled in eighteen years.

In 1859 her exports amounted to $756,574,000. From 1859 a steady increase was maintained up to the year 1872, when they reached the highest figure ever attained, $1,520,000,000. From 1872 to 1876 a rapid decrease is noted, averaging more than $70,000,000 per year, or a total decrease in four years of $281,066,000.

The total imports into the United Kingdom during the year 1877 amounted to $1,914,555,000; an increase over 1876 of more than $91,000,000. The total exports of British and Irish produce during 1877 amounted to $965,583,000, a decrease from the value of the exports of the same produce and manufacture of 1876 of only $9,500,000. The value of foreign and colonial merchandise exported during 1877 is not given. Should it amount, proportionally, to as much as for the preceding year, the result of the trade of the United Kingdom for the year 1877 would be that the increase on imports amounts to almost double the average annual increase of the previous eighteen years, while the decrease in exports is less than one-third the average annual decrease from 1872 to 1876.

The principal articles of import showing an increase in 1877 were: wheat, over $50,000,000; (this large increase must have been in preparation for emergencies rather than for consumption-almost $11,000,000 of this increase was in the import of wheat from Russia; while the import of wheat from the United States showed an increase of $17,500,000); refined sugar, $24,000,000; flour, $10,000,000.

The distribution of the trade of the United Kingdom, and its increase and decrease, with the principal countries, will be seen by the following exhibit:

It will be noticed by the above tables that the United States maintains an indisputable lead in the imports into the United Kingdom, while in the exports therefrom the United States has fallen from a good first in 1872, to the fifth place in 1876.

The volume of trade between the United Kingdom and the United States exceeds that between any other two countries by more than $100,000,000; and this immense trade is largely in favor of the United States.

The following statement shows the principal articles of import, and their value, into the United Kingdom: