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Dynasties, Sovereigns, and Governments of France: Hamburg
The German Empire has a large and rapidly increasing foreign commerce. Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck, which are known as the "Free Towns," being the principal ports. Its merchant navy is superior to that of any other country, with the exception of England and the United States; numbering nearly 6,000 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of more than 1,600,000. Over 80,000 vessels of 11,000,000 tons annually enter and clear from the German ports. The principal exports from these ports are grain, wool, hides, hops, cattle, iron and steel wares, woolen and cotton fabrics, timber, leather, silk goods, hardware, glass and toys. The imports of raw material, including cotton, pigiron, copper and coal, and of coffee, sugar, rice cloth and other goods, are also very large.
Hamburg, Bremen and other ports have regular lines of trans-Atlantic steamers, and many steamboats ply on the Rhine, Danube, Elbe and other large rivers. There are are also regular lines of packets which transfer vast quantities of freight to and from the ports of England and the Baltic, Hamburg being the third largest port in Europe, and only exceeded by London and Liverpool. There is a well organized railroad system, of which more than half is in Prussia. All the roads are subject to government control and some are owned by the state, and the telegraph system is managed by the central Government, as in England. The railroads are designed as much for strategic purposes as to meet the wants of commerce, and are constructed on a uniform plan. One great hindrance to commerce which formerly existed was the diversity of the coinage of the different states, but since the establishment of the Empire all this has been altered. The silver standard was abandoned in favor of that of gold in 1872, but both metals are coined.
The French metrical system of weights and measures was adopted and made compulsory, January, 1872.
THE PEOPLE.- The people of Germany are extremely homogeneous, more than nine-tenths of them belonging to the Germanic race. Of the remainder, about 2,500,০০০ Poles and some Wends, Czechs and others compose the Slavic element. In Schleswig there are about 150,000 Danes, and Lorraine has a large French population. Over
60 per cent. of the people profess Protestantism, a very large majority being connected with either the Lutheran or German Reformed communions. The Roman Catholics comprise 36 per cent. of the entire population, and are in a large majority in Bavaria and Baden. Germany has twenty Universities, of which the most widely known are Berlin, Bonn, Jena, Gottingen, Heidelberg, Leipsic, Munich, Breslau and Strasburg. Theological, legal and medical schools, agricultural and mining colleges and other special schools are plentiful. The literary standard of the German people is very high, and it is seldom that a German is found to be ignorant of reading and writing. Attendance on the public schools is compulsory, all children being required to receive at least five years' instruction.