Articles. The produce and manufacture of the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt. Statement showing the exports from Frankfort consular district of the United States during the quarter ending June 30, 1864. Total.. 15, 677 23 15, 835 00 6,378 55 1,050 00 5, 920 59 20, 123 10 5, 258 05 9,365 46 17,072 83 82,911 29 17,813 56 360 00 7,861 29 26,043 09 2,005 51 46, 135 74 647, 262 01 288, 651 20 157, 826 99 51, 114 18 10, 458 062, 005 511, 146, 317 35 2, 005 51 * * SEPTEMBER 30, 1864. * Finally, I have the honor to give a statement of the exports to the United States from the district of Frankfort-on-the-Main during the quarter ending this day, which will be found to agree with the returns of fees made to your department for this period. The exports amounted to f. 166,146 59-consisting of 278,653 20 Tabular statement showing the exports to the United States from all the States embraced in the consular general district of Frankfort-on-the-Main for the quarter ended September 30, 1864. Total exports from the states included in this consular district to the United States during the financial period from October 1, 1863, to September 30, 1864, compared with those during the same period in the preceding year. Total....... In favor of 15, 090 01 1, 181, 472 10 149, 462 04 102, 390 35 23, 182 24 38, 272 25 3, 285, 826 09 2, 104, 353 59,1, 236, 305 38 54,833 28 47, 071 29 Statement showing the exports from Hesse Darmstadt to the United States, together with the description, value, and place of production for the quarter ended September 30, 1864. SEPTEMBER 30, 1864. The exports to the United States during the quarter to date amounted to The produce and manufactures of the Duchy of Nassau. SEPTEMBER 30, 1864. The exports to the United States during the quarter to date amounted to f. 77,269 16-consisting of The produce and manufactures of the Electorate of Hesse Cassel. Florins. 23, 585 45 4,822 25 30,875 50 11,984 06 6, 001 10 77, 268 36 SEPTEMBER 30, 1864. The past twelve months have been remarkable for a number of events which have exercised the most important influence on the commercial activity of Europe generally, and more especially on the states belonging to the German Zollverein. In the commencement, from the prevailing insecurity of political relations, the commercial relations suffered materially, and, indeed, seriously, from the bloody strife carried on in our country, as well as from the lamentable disturbances in Poland. If, then, under these circumstances, speculation faltered, and the means of commerce were limited for the greater part to the supply for the most indispensable consumption, the political apprehensions were soon increased by the outbreak of the Dano-German war, and, as regards the commercial interests and relations of Germany specially, more so by the feverish apprehensions for the continued existence of the German "Zollverein." These were the four principal points which would not free commerce and industry from those fluctuations, some of which are still exercising their prejudicial influence on the developments of the future. Apprehensions with regard to the Polish question have entirely ceased. The reorganization of the Zollverein, about which I shall not fail to furnish particular remarks in this report, is obtained at last from the decision of Wurtemburg, Bavaria, Hesse Darmstadt, and Nassau to join the newly organized commercial league, as planned by Prussia, on the basis of the commercial treaty with France, and to the partial exclusion of Austria, which met with the most energetic opposition on the part of the four latter states. The consequences of the Dano-German war cannot be rightly ascertained and determined yet, as the settlement of the matter is still under consideration at Vienna. It can only be accepted as certain that peace is secured; that, therefore, in this respect there is no danger of any further disturbance of German commerce by an apprehended interference of foreign powers; on the contrary, that the borders of the Zollverein may be extended by the accession of the duchies of Sleswig, Holstein, and Lunenberg to the same. Irrespectively, however, of these particular events and their influences, the general state of the political affairs of Europe is so complicated and unsettled at present that there are no flattering prospects whatever in the future of commerce and industry-the restraining position of an armed peace, or rather of a continued war readiness, which consumes much cash capital and strength without any real utility; the prolonged discussion of political affairs, which evolves a series of inquiries from year to year which fail to indicate the possibility of peace. As regards the extent and importance of the exchange business of Frankfort, I refer to my monthly and weekly reports on the subject. Commercial activity, as stated upon several former occasions, is best judged from the extent of the business of the two annual fairs, although it is to be remarked that they have for several years past lost much of their former importance. In olden times the fairs had a very peculiar character, by reason of the means of communication being very difficult and troublesome. The journey was expensive, and he who had the means had his competitors on the spot, both as regards choice and price, a matter of no small advantage. At the present time things are different, owing to the more easy means of transit. The dealers receive so many offers from travelling agents throughout the year that there is no difficulty in ordering any article they need. The travelling agents of wholesale houses generally return a few days before the commencement of the fair. Under these circumstances the German retailers, who were in the habit of attending this fair, have now no great need to do so. They come chiefly to convince themselves whether the fair does not afford them still greater novelties in articles of fashion than they had been supplied with some days before by the agents, and thus the fair is attended to select a supplementary stock-in this respect the Frankfort fair is not peculiar. The wholesale merchants, who ten years ago supplied their wants at Leipzig, do not now find in that town the fashionable goods they may want. Thus, the leading houses, who pride themselves on their carefully selected stocks, now purchase their goods at the manufacturer's before the commencement of the fair, or receive from them at the fair patterns of such goods as are not supplied by the Prussian merchants at the Leipzig fair. The Frankfort fair this time presented a different aspect. By reason of the high price of wool the traders in woollen and mixed woollen goods have not been able fully to supply the market; this great advance in price was occasioned less by the scarcity of the raw material than from their inability to fill the heavy orders pressing on them. The financial power of this place enables the wholesale dealers at an early day to contract with the manufacturers for a large delivery of such goods on which it was foreseen that at the end of the year a great advance would be realized. For this reason those merchants who entered the field at a later day found the market too high. In this city they could have bought at usual prices the calicoes, linens, woollen and mixed woollen goods they had ordered from the factories. In such articles, as also in fashionable fabrics, there were extensive sales. In fashionable goods those of Dambreth Caro excelled all others, both in quantity and colors, so that the body-stuffs and shawls always found purchasers; but for the more ordinary articles there is less demand from year to year, and the purchasers give a decided preference to the more beautiful class of fabrics than to others of a lower grade. The same remarks apply to the cloth department; there was a ready sale at high prices for the medium fiue cloths, buckskins, and serges; for the fiuer coat and pantaloon cloths of new designs there was a great demand, to no great stock on hand. The production is not equal to the consumption; the latter has increased very much in consequence of the almost exclusive use of the improved cheap yarns made of Indian cotton to the injury of the linen trade, which, for want of stock, cannot meet |