Mannheim is a prominent petroleum market of the Continent. An extensive area of ground is devoted to this particular commerce. The installation follows the American system, so far as local circumstances admit. On the angle formed by the confluence of the rivers Neckar and Rhine, a number of tanks, with an aggregate capacity of 50,000,000 liters (13,000,000 gallons), has been erected; these hardly suffice to satisfy the increasing demand. River tank boats receive the oil directly from the ocean ships, ordinarily at Antwerp; after five to eight days they empty their contents into the tanks on shore, whence the oil is taken to the consumers far and near by railroads in truck tanks, and by wagons for the local dealers. The petroleum trade here, as in all western and northwestern regions of Germany, is controlled by the United States, which will enjoy a practical monopoly until transportation facilities with the competing countries (Russia, Galicia, etc.) are improved.

The area of Mannheim Harbor (not including Ludwigshafen) covers 220 hectares, or 450 acres. The length along the banks of the rivers and the inner basins amounts to almost 25 kilometers (15 miles).

On the wharves there are no less than one hundred steam and electric cranes.

The new addition to the harbor is. 6.5 kilometers (4.038 miles) long and about 300 meters (984 feet) broad, and its banks are secured

by levees and quays. It will be supplied with the required appa

ratus and have the necessary connections with all railways.

The arrival by water in one year of over 1,600,000 tons of coal (not including the considerable quantities shipped from the coal measures of the Saar district) shows the industrial importance of Mannheim and the surrounding region.

The capital of companies domiciled here, excluding Ludwigshafen, amounts to 214,723,718 marks ($53,500,000). The industries comprise works in iron, steel, copper, wood, cotton, wool, india rubber, etc. To the United States the chemical works, and among these the Badische Anilin-Soda Fabrik, are of special interest. There is hardly a country of the globe where the products of this establishment are not found. From the chemical works within this consular district, large quantities of goods are shipped to America. exports of chemicals, drugs, aniline colors, and dyes amounted to $2,181,400 in 1898. Next in importance in the same time were the shipments of leather, $614,800; cement, $107,600; wood pulp, $67,200; and wines, $36,300.

The population of Mannheim numbered in 1870 not more than 40,000 inhabitants; it is now stated to be 125,395.

GERMAN TARIFF ON AGRICULTURAL MACHINES AND TOOLS.

In reply to special instructions of May 13 from the Department,* I have to report that the duty on agricultural implements, machines, and tools imported into Germany is specific and based upon the material of which the implement or machine is principally composed, modified again by the polish, painting, and finish, or outward decoration that has been applied.

These conditions, while theoretically simple, are in practice often exceedingly complicated, so that it is frequently impossible, even for an expert importer, to say positively what the duty on a new article will be until a sample has been imported and subjected to actual classification and appraisal by the customs officials.

In so far as the questions submitted by the Department can be answered from the imperial German tariff schedule, supplemented by the testimony of a leading importer of American machinery, such imports are classified for duty as follows, the rate given in marks, with equivalents in United States currency, being for 100 kilograms (220.46 pounds).

(a) Machines and parts of wood or cast iron or both......

(b) Machines and parts of wrought iron and steel or both.......

(c) Machines and parts of other base metals or any other ordinary material...........

Marks.

3=$0.71 5= 1.19

8= 1.90

In classifying machinery, the principle holds that where a machine is composed of several different materials belonging to two of the above groups or designations, the machine as a whole shall be assessed under the class to which the greatest weight of its materials belongs, viz, wood and cast iron at 3 marks, wrought iron and steel at 5 marks, and brass, zinc, copper, and all other base metals and ordinary materials at 8 marks per 100 kilograms.

Thus, if a machine weighing 100 kilograms contains 40 kilograms of brass and copper, 30 kilograms of wrought iron, and 30 kilograms of cast iron, it would be assessed for duty under class c at 8 marks ($1.90) per 100 kilograms. If, on the other hand, it contains. wood and cast iron weighing together more than all the other materials, it would be assessed under class a at 3 marks per 100 kilograms. In all cases the rate of duty is governed by the polish or

* This report was requested in order to enable the Department to definitely answer inquiries in regard to the duties on these articles imported into Germany, no specific mention of them being made in the German tariff.

outward finish of an article, and in this respect the German tariff is peculiar and leads to some curious decisions. Thus the rating of a fire-proof safe is changed if, as is usual with safes of American manufacture, a picture is painted for decorative purposes on one of its panels. Thus, also, plows and other agricultural implements, if rough and unpainted, are dutiable at 6 marks; but if polished, varnished, or painted are assessed 10 marks ($2.38) per 100 kilograms. The duty on carriages is doubled when any portion of the vehicle is upholstered.

Tools of iron or steel alone or in combination with wood and not polished, varnished, or painted are dutiable as follows:

(a) Rough, as anvils, shafting, etc........

Marks.

...........per 100 kilograms... 3=$0.71 (b) Finished, as axes, hatchets, and mechanics' tools..............................do................ 10= 2.38 (c) Fine tools, polished and varnished....... ...do...... 24= 5.71

The following machinery imported from countries which enjoy by treaty with Germany the privileges of the most-favored nation* may be imported in detached parts and assembled or set up in this country, and in this condition pay duty according to the rate pertaining to the chief material of composition, that is, greatest aggregate weight in the entire machine, as above explained: Flouring-mill machinery, electrical, cotton-spinning and weaving, steam engines and boilers, paper-mill equipments, machine tools, turbines, woolen spinning and weaving, pumps, ventilators, blowing machinery, steam hammers and rollers, shearing, punching, and boring machines, etc. FRANK H. MASON, Consul-General.

BERLIN, June 1, 1899.

SUGGESTIONS FOR EXPORTERS TO GERMANY.

Almost daily, letters reach this consulate-general from United. States manufacturers asking how to proceed to find a market in Germany, for addresses of German firms, or for local agents. Desiring to aid in the expansion of our country's trade, I give a great deal of my time to personal interviews with German dealers, etc., but my experience teaches me that these efforts to gain markets are, in the main, futile. The American manufacturers who have been successful in acquiring a large export trade to Europe are those who have sent agents from home to exploit and work the foreign fields. These agents should not only be familiar with the character, quality, and technical features of the products which they offer for sale, but they must have culture, business tact, and full command of the language

*Including the United States.

of the country in which they will operate. We have plenty of such young men who were born or educated in European countries; these are the proper pioneers to open a path for American exports. It is a mistake to send out persons who speak English only, or who are unacquainted with European customs, social as well as commercial.

In giving the agency of American goods to German firms or individuals, our manufacturers and exporters have no guaranty that their interests will be protected or properly pushed.

We hold yearly industrial exhibitions in our own country, each of which costs many millions of dollars. If this money were expended in holding expositions in foreign countries, the results would be more profitable to our business interests and would increase our export figures quickly and largely.

Each exposition should comprise only one leading line of goods and should be migratory, remaining in the most suitable center of each country for six months, and then moving to another. The ablest representatives of our trade should act as exhibitors, canvassers, and selling agents.

FRANKFORT, June 12, 1899.

SIMON W. HANAUER,

Vice-Consul-General.

GERMAN-AMERICAN BALANCE OF TRADE.

Mr. Fisk, second secretary of embassy at Berlin, under date of May 18, 1899, sends translation of an official memorandum as to the trade balance between Germany and the United States, as follows:

The estimates given by the Secretary of State of the Interior, Count von Posadowsky, in the session of the Reichstag of February 11 last, regarding the excess of the imports into Germany from the United States, as compared with the exports from Germany to the United States, has been stated by far too low, as, according to later investigations of the imperial statistical bureau, the amount has been 551,000,000 marks ($131,138,000) in favor of the United States.

The excess in favor of the United States increased from 260,000,000 marks ($61,880,000) in 1897 to about 551,000,000 marks ($131,138,000) in 1898, while during the fiscal year 1893 the exports from Germany to the United States were larger than the imports into Germany from the United States,

Never before has more been imported into Germany from the United States than in 1898, and only once during the last ten years has Germany exported less to that country than in 1898. According to United States statistics, the exports of the latter country to Germany for the year 1898 have exceeded the German exports to the United States by more than $86,000,000.

The difference of the two statistical estimates may, in a large degree, be explained by the fact that the importation of goods from the United States into Germany, especially southern Germany, come via the Netherlands and Belgium, and that the American statistics give the goods as coming from America only when they are sent by German ships to German harbors, or whenever the place of designation is made clear by the marking of the shipment, which, however, is rarely the case. The difference of the statistical results is thereby explained. Finally, the assumption seems justified that each country would be in the best position to establish the amount of goods it receives from foreign countries.

As regards the present increase of exportation of goods to the United States for the first quarter of 1899, this is due mainly to a larger exportation of sugar. The increase for the first quarter of 1899 amounts to $4,000,000 in round figures, and of this about 14,500,000 marks, or about $3,500,000, falls to sugar alone. As in 1898 only a minimum amount of sugar was sent from Germany to the United States, an increase in the exports for this year can not be surprising. In individual articles there is a decrease; in others a small increase. But even though it be presumed that the exports of Germany to the United States would increase during the following quarters, as has been the case during the first three months of 1899, German exports to the United States would nevertheless not reach the amount of 1897.

GERMANY'S FOREIGN INTERESTS.

Hitherto few have had anything like a definite idea of Germany's interests abroad. German economists are not exaggerating when they say this Empire's people and capital are operating in every part of the world. Not only Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Lübeck, and Kiel-i. e., the seaport cities-but towns far inland, have invested millions in foreign enterprises. In the Americas, North and South, in Australia, in Asia, in a large part of Africa, German settlements, German factories, German merchants, and German industrial leaders are at work. Nor is it always in settlements under the Empire's control that this influence is strongest. In Senegambia, on the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast, in Zanzibar and Mozambique, in Australia, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Tahiti, Sumatra, and South and Central America there are powerful commercial organizations aiding the Empire. From Vladivostock to Singapore, on the mainland of Asia, and in many of the world's most productive islands, the influence of German money and thrift is felt. In Central America and the West Indies, millions of German money are in the plantations; so, too, in the plantations along the Gold Coast. In Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil, etc, German capital plays a very important part in