14 
DEVELOPMENT 
the Elbe, and in 1830 on the Danube. The basis 
for industrial development on a large scale was 
consequently laid. The different parts of the 
country were brought closer to each other, their 
connection became more intimate, their interests 
more common. The prices of articles of con 
sumption in the whole Customs Union became 
more uniform, more regular : differences of 30 
per cent, and more in foodstuffs, which had 
prevailed before between the Rhineland, for 
instance, and some Prussian Provinces, were out 
of question. 
At the same time, a more distinct difference 
with regard to the production in the various 
districts became manifest. Each branch of 
industry located itself where the most favourable 
natural conditions seemed to exist. Technical 
improvements, for instance, the more general use 
of steam engines, soon stimulated industrial 
expansion, which was further assisted by tariff 
reform, introduced in the forties of last century, 
in order to protect the home markets against 
English competition. Most of the large industrial 
undertakings in the Rhineland, Westphalia, and 
Silesia, etc., which have since assumed such 
gigantic dimensions, were formed in that period— 
the works of Krupp, Borsig, Donnersmarck, etc., 
are much older still.