Play cards, salt, tobacco: trade restrictions of German Zollverein in 1833

Abstract

Importance. The main objective of the study is to find the special regulations regarding some trade goods. The research is focused on the comprehensive study of restrictions of German Zollverein’s treaty, which had affected the local and foreign trade. The analysis has formed the complex of reasons which led to the special arrangements towards the important goods. The study of particular aspects of customs reforms shows the new perspectives in the research of this topic and fulfills the image of trade connections on German territories in 1820–30s.Materials and Methods. The main document for the research is “The treaty of customs unification” from March 22, 1833. There are also plenty of commercial press articles of that period studied, which overviewed the trade and customs changes and reforms. The analytics and synthesis methods give the possibility to have a full overview of the mentioned sources and to restore the main tendencies in trade restrictions of this epoch.Results and Discussion. The detailed analysis highlights the most important trade goods on the German area, which were the subjects of interests for many German governments. There were the monopoly goods or the sources of big custom duties, which filled the German treasuries for decades. The threat of losing this income due to established German Zollverein, which customs taxes were supposed to be summarized and parted, led to the compromise solution in regards to some goods. The play cards, salt, tobacco and alcohol production were supposed to stay under cautious control, the trade of them was specially mentioned on the extra conditions.Conclusion. Trade restrictions seemed to be the compromise arrangement in the customs treaty, which aimed to keep the state income safe. They were also based on law differences regarding mentioned goods and supposed to protect German industry from foreign competition.