Bavaria, where the Red and White Main join, but for ships only from Bamberg, and it continues so far, a distance of 49 German miles, as far as the Mainspitze by Castel.

The navigation of the Main by ships and rafts seems to have existed in the earliest times, and tolls to have been levied on it, for in a deed of the year 1074, by the Emperor, Henry IV, there is mention of a custom-house at Frankfort, and another deed of the year 1329 gives a list of goods on which duty was to be paid at Frankfort by the inhabitants of every state excep tthose of Nuremberg, Strasburg, Haguenau, Speyer, Worms, Oppenheim, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Gelnhaussen. It is certain that, in the middle ages, and until the dissolution of the Germanic empire, during which every liege lord had endeavored to make the river tolls a source of revenue, the navigation and trade of the Main suffered severely from the exactions of the inhabitants of its banks.

As a proof of the large sums levied as toll, the master of a vessel paid in the year 1790, at 25 custom-houses from Mainz to Kitzingen, 759 florins 49 drachms on 2,300 centimes cargo.

The treaty of the congress of Vienna affirmed the principle of the freedom of the German rivers, and of their conventionally tributary streams, but left the further arrangement to the respective governments of the several States, which at that time, however, had so many internal wounds of their own to heal, and so many important organic regulations to make, that they could not attend to the question of navigation tolls. No relief, therefore, was obtained by this, or any subsequent custom-house treaty; and although Bavaria has abolished, for the facilitation of commercial intercourse, all tolls on the Main since the year 1815, the other states on its banks have raised those duties at pleasure.

At last a dangerous competitor of the river navigation appeared in the railway travelling and transport, which perhaps may have induced those states in their own interest to enter into the arrangement agreed on in 1845-'46. A barrier was thus opposed to the previous arbitrary levy of duties on the Main by the substitution of a fixed tariff for dues on goods, lumber, and shipping, and by reducing the number of custom-houses from 6 to 5-(Wertheim, Steinheim, Hanau, Frankfort, and Hochst,) greater security being also afforded to river navigation by the establishment of fixed principles for the regulation of breadth and depth of water.

The arrangement of the 1st June, 1846, which was only provisional, lasted about 15 years, and on the 16th May, 1861, a new treaty concerning the navigation of the Main was concluded by the states situated on that river; which, if it did not entirely abolish all dues, materially reduced them, leaving in force only the high duties on timber, lumber, and sawed planks.

The navigation on the Main is naturally subject to considerable fluctuations, partly from political and commercial causes, and partly from the state of the water, being also in a great degree affected by the competition of the railroads. The principal articles at present forwarded by railway instead of by river are beer, cotton goods, wooden ware, mineral water and toys.

The annexed table, marked A, exhibits the receipts of the five Main customhouse offices at Wertheim, Steinheim, Hanau, Frankfort, and Hochst, from 1841 to 1860, with an average calculation for one year.

The table marked B exhibits the quantity of merchandise which passed and paid duty at those five custom-house offices, from 1847 to 1860.

The table marked C exhibits the quantity of timber and lumber which paid duty at those offices from 1847 to 1860.

'The table marked D exhibits the traffic in the port of Frankfort, as regards vessels arriving up the river with foreign goods, from 1847 to 1860.

The table marked E exhibits the quantity of goods which passed and paid duty at Frankfort, from 1847 to 1860.

The table marked F exhibits the receipts of the custom-house office at Frankfort, from 1847 to 1860. The receipts of Frankfort are proportionally low, on account of treaties concluded with several states.

The table marked G exhibits the principal articles of traffic on the Main, up and down the river, from 1847 to 1860.

A few remarks on the German Zollverein generally, and its connexion with Frankfort, may also be of interest here.

All the states of southern Germany, with the exception of Baden, Homburg, Nassau, and the free city of Frankfort, having, in 1834, with Prussia and its allies, established a customs union, it was joined also by the three former states in 1835, and in 1836 by Frankfort.

Although Frankfort had continued, as long as practicable, to enjoy the utmost possible freedom of trade, and had even endeavored to strengthen it by a commercial treaty with England, and although, in certain quarters, every effort was made to prevent the accession to the customs union, and the ruin of the trade and prosperity of Frankfort, and of its independence, was loudly prophesied, it was at last resolved to change the former system. The complete isolation caused by the adhesion of other states to the Zollverein, the injury done to trade, and the springing up of a fair in the neighboring town of Offenbach, these, and perhaps other considerations, in addition to the mercantile and financial advantages offered by the union, contributed to a decision in favor of this step.

Frankfort obtained, at the expense of the Zollverein, a custom-house direction, composed of natives of that city and of the grand duchy and electorate of Hesse; a chief tax office, composed in a similar manner, with a Saxon chief customhouse officer, and Ganger at its head, in order to be on the same footing with the chief custom-house at Leipsic; and concessions made in favor of the trade and fairs of Frankfort, similar to those enjoyed by other towns holding fairs. The Zollverein undertook the expense of administration, and Frankfort engaged to supply suitable buildings, which engagement is fulfilled by the erection of a large toll-house and warehouse, and also of clearing-offices on the Main. The gate fees (Thorsperrgelder) and the following dues were abolished, as: weighing fees, warehousing dues, exit and entrance toll for the Frankfort district; the town excise duties for wine, brandy, rum, and arrack, not made in the countries of the customs union; excise on tobacco, rolled barley, husked oats, millet, peas, beans, lentils, and vetches.

The accession of Frankfort to the Zollverein was a very important event for both, and the tabular specification of some of its results may be interesting.

The annexed table, H, exhibits the quantities of raw materials, articles of consumption, and manufactured goods which paid import duty at the chief office of the Frankfort custom-house. It would lead too far to specify in succession the various articles imported. It is sufficient to remark that there was an increase on the following articles: Raw cotton, soda, raw skins and hides for leather, train-oil, hair of animals; on coffee, rice, spices, oils, tropical fruits, comfits, starch, raw tobacco leaves, brandies of all kinds, and tea; lastly, on steel, wrought and unwrought iron; iron ware, fine wooden ware, linen yarn and thread, bleached and raw linen, and gray packing cloth; on silken goods, copper ware and brass, (hardware,) tanned and shamoy leather, glove leather, leather cloths, foot-carpets, wooden and glass wares. The entrance dues on imports have decreased on raw sheep-wool, tin in blocks, (block-tin,) hops, raw silk, tar; on cheese, sugar, and manufactured tobacco; on cotton and half silken goods, woollen yarn, instruments, hardware (at one hundred and fifty thalers entrance duty per quintal,) fine leather goods, gloves, paper, house-papering, white and colored china. The entrance duties on importation of raw stuffs were on the increase in the year 1854 and 1855; a corresponding increase is to be observed on articles for consumption, from the year 1851 and after, and a considerable increase in many articles of manufacture since 1859.

Among the most important articles of Frankfort commerce may be reckoned wine, must, and brandy or spirits.

The two tables marked I and K exhibit the traffic in those articles from the 6th February, 1836, to the end of the year 1860. According to these tables 2,338,708 quintals or 668,202 Frankfort awms of wine and must were imported during that period. The export of wine and must amounted altogether to 1,859,697 quintals, or 531,342 Frankfort awms (ohms) of which 1,191,609 quintals, or 340,459 Frankfort ohms, were shipped for Prussia; 267,458 quintals, or 76,417 ohms, to Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Baden, Nassau, and Hanover; 198,078 quintals, or 56,594 ohms, to Hesse Darmstadt, and 202,552 quintals or 58,872 ohms to the German states not included in the Zollverein. There remained, therefore, in Frankfort itself, since the existence of the Zollverein, 479,011 quintals, or 136,860 Frankfort ohms, being on an average 5,475 for one year, which, estimating the male population of Frankfort above 16 years of age at 24,000 souls, makes 18.2 maas, or about 54 bottles a head per year.

Of brandy there were imported during the same period 578,706 quintals, or 192,902 ohms. Of these quantities 237,211 quintals, or 79,070 ohms, were exported. The quantity consumed in Frankfort cannot be stated precisely; but according to calculation it was on an average 3,163 ohms, making 10.5 maas, or about 30 bottles a year for each person.

The tables marked L and M exhibit the amount of duties received at the chief custom-house office in Frankfort from 6th February, 1836, to the end of 1860, on account of the Zollverein, and the total receipts of duties of the Zollverein during that period. From these tables it appears that fl.37,444,838, or about $15,000,000 were received at Frankfort for import, export, and transit dues, while the total receipts of the Zollverein were fl.1,062,052,160, or about $425,000,000, so that the proportion received at Frankfort amount to 3.5 per cent. of the total receipts of the Zollverein, being a net profit for Frankfort on that sum of fl.6,774,356, or about $2,710,000.

It is well known that Frankfort is chiefly indebted for her commercial reputation from the earliest time to the two annual fairs held here; and, although their influence is much diminished by the altered circumstances of trade, still some branches of the wholesale and retail business are of such importance that they are worthy of closer consideration.

The precise date of the first Frankfort fair is not known; but it may safely be assumed that they were held here at a very early period as the staple town for trade on the Main, and on the great commercial road leading by Friesburg, Heidelberg, and Cassel to Lower Saxony. The first documental mention of the autumn fair was in the thirteenth century, in a deed of confirmation by the Emperor Frederick II, (1240,) and of the Easter fair, which, by that time, was well established, in a charter granted by Lewis the Bavarian in 1330. A prominent position was thus obtained for wholesale trade with the Netherlands, Saxony, Prussia, Silesia, Bohemia, Italy, Suabia, and the Frankish countries. Frankfort's greatest development was at the latter end of the middle ages, when it became also the central place for money business, which, naturally, insured a more extensive wholesale trade; and it had acquired great importance among the southern states, especially for its trade with France.

Its fairs were the most frequented of any in Europe, and even in those days were considered the first in the world. It was the great medium of traffic for goods coming up the Rhine by Antwerp from Portugal, Spain, and France into the more remote parts of Germany, and from thence direct to France. Indeed, its trade in foreign goods was at that time so great that, in many writings of the period, either from jealousy or ignorance, an unfavorable opinion was expressed towards it, on account of the large quantity of gold which left the country for the purchase of foreign goods. Frankfort formed, at that time, a

market place for all the world, and a meeting place for its merchants. Here they closed their bargains, compared their accounts, gave their orders, and exchanged their merchandise; and thus it grew to be one of the most important places for trade and money in southern Germany.

With the decline of German commerce in the sixteenth century, arising partly from the traffic of the continent being transferred to the western seas, and also from the want of political protection for trade, the prosperity of Frankfort and of its fairs declined also. It received, further, a severe shock during the sad period of the thirty years' war in the seventeenth century. In spite, however, of troubles and revolutions, Frankfort, by its situation, its privileges, its intelligence, its moneyed resources, and mercantile connexion, continued to be one of the most important places for fairs and trade in Germany as far as the eighteenth century, when the commercial and custom-house treaty, concluded in 1834 and 1835 by Prussia and its allies with the states of southern Germany, threatened to become dangerous to the fairs of Frankfort, which, at that time, had a flourishing trade in English manufactures and colonial goods; and this, perhaps, as already mentioned, may have in part been the reason of its joining the Zollverein.

The fairs, indeed, obtained almost entirely a new character from the elevation of native industry, the increased means of traffic, and the great facility for retailers and consumers to give their orders by the large number of commercial travellers now sent out by the manufacturers and wholesale dealers. Their usefulness now consists not so much in the accommodation afforded to wholesale trade by the establishment of warehouses, but it is confined rather to the narrow limits of retail, show-booths being substituted for magazines. It is chiefly by the continuance of the old practice of making these fairs the time for the settlement of accounts that they still are of any importance for large merchants and moneyed men.

The annexed tables, marked N and O, exhibit the quantities of goods imported and exported during the spring and autumn fairs, from 1836 to 1860. From this it appears that 3,421,2683 quintals were imported by land and river, and 2,076,798 exported during the spring fairs, and 3,098,847 quintals imported, and 1,963,931 exported during the autumn fairs.

One of the most important articles of these fairs is, no doubt, leather. The annexed table, marked P, exhibits the quantity of leather imported during the fairs from 1836 to 1860; from which it appears that the imports of leather amounted to 905,968 quintals.

As to the commerce of Frankfort, generally, the annexed table, marked Q, exhibits the total importation of goods from 1837 to 1860. From this the imports appear to have increased during the last four years almost five-fold, as compared with the years 1837 to 1839. The traffic by railway communication is also remarkable, amounting between the 7th of August, 1847, and the end of 1860 to 23,553,113 quintals, or 43.63 per cent. of the total imports, 50,512,077 quintals, while the whole of the other land and river conveyance forwarded only 15,142,971 quintals, or 30.51 per cent., and 11,545,993 quintals, or 22.86 per cent. of the total imports.

The annexed table, marked R, exhibits some of the principal articles of commerce, such as cotton goods, sugar, coffee, and manufactured tobacco, imported from 1836 to 1850, and stone coal from 1854 to 1860.

Table S exhibits the total exports from 1837 to 1860, showing a large increase, especially since 1850, to which the railway communication has, of course, greatly contributed. There were forwarded by railway from the 9th August, 1847, to the end of 1860, 19,482,815 quintals, or 55.59 per cent. of the total export of 35,058,777 quintals, and by land conveyance during the same period only 10,216,349 quintals, or 29 per cent., and by river only 5,359,551 quintals, or 15.25 per cent. of the total export.

In the annexed table, T, is exhibited the export of some of the principal articles of commerce, such as cotton goods, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, from 1836 to 1850. If from the total imports (50,512,077 quintals) the total exports (35,058,777 quintals) are deducted, there is a balance of 15,453,300 quintals, or an average per year of 643,887.5 quintals consumed in Frankfort itself during the years 1837 to 1860.

The transit traffic of Frankfort from 1837 to 1860 cannot be very exactly specified. It is shown in an approximate manner in the annexed table, marked U. As regards the last fair, which took place this autumn, there is not much of importance to report. The fearness of scantiness or dearness of accommodation in the inns, in consequence of the Congress of Princes, may, perhaps, have prevented many purchasers from coming. The attendance was by no means so great as formerly, nor even of those who came were there many really for the supply of wants.

American customers appeared in very small numbers. More are said to have visited the Leipsic fair, especially for the purchase of articles intended for the use of the army, such as, in consequence of the unexpected extent of the war, are much wanted in the American markets.

No regular business was done to any extent at suitable prices, but there was a good sale for novelties in English and Saxon manufactures, particularly the pretty plain stuffs, new greens and blues, (bleu de Mexique,) as well as lively patterns in plaid, and small figured goods.

In cotton and half cottons some untowardness existed of their being either not sold at all, or under cost price. Purchasers lived in constant fear of a fall in the cotton prices, although the rise in shirtings during the fair might have taught them otherwise. Yet there were still sellers of cotton goods at prices for which they could not be replaced. This abnormal state of things has, however, had the good effect of turning the attention of buyers to finer goods, in which the price of the article is not taken into consideration. In calicoes little was done. The article is not much suited for winter, and is too dear. White goods, as cambrics and curtain stuffs, were only to be disposed of when the owners were willing to give away their stock at lower prices.

All common woollen goods, such as lamas, flannels, &c., still suffered from the influence of the late extremely mild winter. The shops are sufficiently provided for the next demand, which will not be for six or eight weeks, and they can afford to wait through the regular routine of business till larger purchases are necessary.

Novelties were eagerly sought for, and almost entirely bought up. Middling goods, on the contrary, were not much asked for. The business in cloths and buckskins, as in many of the previous fairs, was not of much importance. Notwithstanding the prices, owing to the rise in wool, were higher, an increase of five per cent. was cheerfully paid on inferior samples. Dark paletot stuffs of middling quality were in great favor. Little demand for black cloths; but, on the other hand, novelties in pantaloon stuffs much asked for, and nearly all bought up. The sale for fine linen was comparatively small, but half linen goods much sought for, with scanty stocks; so much so, that the supply could hardly meet the demand. Silk goods, notwithstanding the lowness of the price, found no sale. Knitted woollen goods much asked for, and sold well; the supply was not equal to the demand. Woollen fancy articles had a brisk sale. This place has obtained a well-merited reputation in this branch of the business by its rich and tasteful assortment.

In knitted cotton goods the business was pretty good, but also at reduced prices.

Hardware, either common or of better description, never has a prominent place in the fairs, but this time the business in the finer articles (articles de Paris) of this branch was particularly flat.