The census of 1867 gives the average density of the population at 176 per English square mile. The variation, however, is considerable the density being highest in the manufacturing district of Düsseldorf, in the Rhine province, where it is nearly four times the average, and smallest in the district of Köslin, Pomerania, where it amounts but to three-fifths of the average. There is a great number of towns, most of them of very limited population, spread all over the kingdom. The ten largest of them, at the census of 1867, were Berlin, with 702,437; Breslau, with 171,926; Cologne, or Köln, with 125,172; Königsberg, with 106,296; Danzig, with 89,311; Magdeburg, with 78,552; Frankfort-on-the-Main, with 78,277; Hanover, with 73,979; Stettin, with 73,714; and Aixla-Chapelle, or Aachen, with 68,178 inhabitants. About one-half, or twelve millions of the population of the kingdom, are engaged in agriculture, as sole or chief occupation, while nearly five millions possess landed property. Large estates, as a rule, are only to be found in the eastern and least populated provinces of the monarchy, while in the central and western portions land is often extremely subdivided. A cadastral survey taken in 1858, showed the existence of 1,099,000 land owners possessing each less than five or 34 acres.

Trade and Industry.

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The direct trade of Prussia with foreign countries is carried on mainly through the ports on the Baltic, and the amount of exports and imports shipped through harbours on the North Sea is comparatively unimportant. However, a large portion of exports from, and imports into the kingdom pass.in transit through Hamburg and Bremen, on which account the returns of them appear much smaller than they are in reality. Further particulars concerning the general commerce of Prussia will be found under the heading 'Zollverein,' pp. 186-88.

The direct commercial intercourse of Prussia with the United Kingdom is exhibited in the subjoined tabular statement, showing the value of the exports from Prussia to the United Kingdom, and of the imports of British and Irish produce into Prussia in the five years 1864 to 1868 :

The exports from Prussia to the United Kingdom consist almost entirely of agricultural produce. The chief articles are wheat, to the amount of from 3,000,000l. to 4,000,000l. per annum; other kinds of corn to the value of 1,000,000l.; and wood and timber to the average amount of 1,000,000l. per annum. The chief items of British imports into Prussia are iron, wrought and unwrought, to the value of 300,000l.; herrings in barrels, to the average value of 250,000l.; and cotton yarn, to the annual value of 240,0007.

The principal Prussian ports are Memel, Pillau, Königsberg, Danzig, Colberg, Swinemünde, Stettin, Wolgast, Stralsund, Kiel and Flensburg on the Baltic, and Altona, Harburg, Geestemünde, Leer and Emden on the North Sea. The merchant navy of Prussia on Jan. 1, 1869, numbered 1,460 vessels, of a total 203,306 lasts (2 tons each). Of these 197, with 188,177 lasts, were sailing-ships of more than 40 lasts; 383, with 9,567 lasts, coasters; 29; with 4,072 lasts, steamers; and 78, with 1,550 lasts, tugs and river-boats. Danzig had 144 ships, with 39,156 lasts; Stettin 188, with 27,228 lasts; Memel 106, with 23,582 lasts; Barth 242, with 23,871 lasts; Greifswald 57, with 9,137 lasts; Wolgast 62, with 7,750 lasts; Ueckermünde 41, with 7,103 lasts; and Königsberg 15, with 2,711 lasts. The former Hanoverian ports had 932 ships, with 62,148 lasts, and Schleswig-Holstein, besides a large number of small craft, 713 large ships with 53,776 lasts. The tonnage of the mercantile navy of the kingdom of Prussia, in 1864, was larger than that of Russia, but only two-thirds that of the Netherlands. In 1869 it surpassed that of the navies of commerce of both Russia and the Netherlands.

The mineral riches of Prussia are very considerable. An account of the chief industries based thereon is given in the following tables, which show the number of mines, smelting works, and foundries in operation, the quantities and value of their produce in 1866, and the number of persons, with their families, employed by them at the end of the same year:—

The trade and industry of Prussia is much fostered by its wealth in coal, which is sufficient not only to supply its own wants but serves as an important article of export into all parts of southern Germany, to France and Switzerland. The following table, compiled from official returns, gives a list of the chief coal districts, with the quantities of coal raised in each of the years 1862 and 1864, and the value at the place of origin:

The production of coal in Prussia has enormously increased within recent years, as will be seen from the following statement, given after official returns. There were raised :—

The coal pits in the Ruhr-Düsseldorf district extend over more than ten miles in length, and are calculated to be able to continue their present supply for 5,000 years. The coal pits of the river Saar, situated in the extreme south-western angle of the Rhenish Provinces, and which extend their productive strata into Bavarian and French territory, offer about the sixth part of the coal produce of Prussia. The working of these pits is exclusively in the hands of the Government, and the produce is exported to the Middle and Upper Rhenish provinces, to the Moselle, Main, and Neckar, as far as Nürnberg, Munich, and Switzerland, to the eastern parts of France, Alsatia, the Upper Marne country, and to Paris.

Prussia has a very large and complete system of railways. Of these railways, six lines-the most important that from Frankfort-on-the-Oder to Königsberg and the Russian frontier, 101 German miles long-are State property; and fifteen others are under government control, having been partly constructed by State loans or subventions. The guarantees undertaken by the Prussian Government to facilitate the construction of private railways in the kingdom are to the total amount of 106,780,000 thalers, or about 15,000,000l. For the construction of railways in general, a debt had been incurred, in 1869, to the amount of 183,312,428 thalers, or 27,496,8641., of which total the sum of 134,703,812 thalers was on behalf of the old provinces of the monarchy; 16,868,730 thalers, on behalf of the former kingdom, now province of Hanover; 15,207,600 thalers, on behalf of the former electorate of Hesse, now district of Cassel; and 16,532,286 thalers, on behalf of the former duchy of Nassau, now district of Wiesbaden. All the lines of the former territories of Hanover, Hesse, and Nassau are owned by the state, and there is a tendency that, at a period not far removed, the whole of the railways of Prussia will be national property.