APPENDIX  D.—REPORT  ON  GERMAN  TARIFF.

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With  regard  to  cotton  fabrics,  we  are  given  to  understand  by  those  most
competent  to  judge  that  the  complications  proposed  to
Cotton  Fabrics,  be  introduced  into  the  tariff  under  this  head,  while  especially ­
  objectionable  from  the  point  of  view  of  British
exporters,  will  inevitably  be  found  to  afford  a  conspicuous  example  of  the
difficulties  to  which  we  have  alluded  above,  The  subdivision  of  the
classes  for  woven  goods,  according  to  the  weight  per  square  metre  and
the  number  of  threads  in  the  square  of  five  millimetres,  will  give  rise  to
much  trouble  both  to  exporters  here  and  importers  in  Germany,  add  greatly
to  the  labour  of  the  German  Customs  officials,  cause  constant  friction  and  disputes ­
  with  the  authorities,  and  occasion  vexatious  delays  in  trading  operations.
The  rates  of  duty  on  all  but  the  coarsest  descriptions  of  unbleached  tissues,
which  are  not  extensively  shipped  to  Germany,  are  proposed  to  be  greatly
augmented,  an  augmentation  which  extends  with  increased  pressure  to  all
tissues  other  than  unbleached.  This  is  apparent  from  the  note  which  appears
in  the  draft  tariff  to  the  effect  that  **  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the
“  weight  class  of  dyed  and  printed  tissues,  the  weight  ascertained  per  square
“  metre  will  be  decreased  by  15  per  cent.”  This  can  only  mean  that  the
weight  of  all  dyed  or  printed  tissues,  as  declared  or  actually  ascertained,
will  be  decreased  by  15  per  cent,  in  order  to  fix  the  classification  for  duty
according  to  the  unbleached  scale,  on  which  additional  duties  of  50  marks
per  100  kilogrammes  are  to  be  levied.  The  deduction  of  this  percentage  will
have  the  result  in  many  cases  of  bringing  the  dyed  or  printed  goods  under
a  category  paying  relatively  higher  duties  in  the  unbleached  state,  as  the
lighter  the  goods  the  heavier  the  duty.  It  has  been  pointed  out  to  us  that
the  assumption  appears  to  have  been  made  in  framing  the  classification
of  cotton  tissues  that  printed  and  dyed  goods,  as  such,  weigh  more  than
unbleached  goods  of  corresponding  texture,  and  that  such  an  assumption  can
only  have  been  made  under  an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  facts.  We
have  been  furnished  with  statements  which  tend  to  show  that  the  contrary
is  the  case,  and  that  finished—i.e.,  printed  and  dyed—goods  weigh  less
than  similar  goods  in  the  grey  and  unbleached  condition,  the  difference
varying  in  some  cases  from  10  to  20  per  cent.  If  this  provision  be  enacted,
therefore,  exporters  of  dyed  and  printed  goods  will  not  only  have  to  face  a
higher  tariff  and  a  complicated  system  of  classification,  but  also  a  surtax
which  would  seem  to  have  been  proposed  under  a  misconception.  Moreover,
we  are  further  assured  that  the  weight  of  the  same  unbleached  cloth  when
dyed  or  printed  in  different  colours,  light  or  dark,  will  vary  considerably,
and  that  the  effect  of  the  provision  in  question  may  easily  be  that  the  light
colours  will  be  subject  to  one  rate  of  duty  and  the  dark  to  another.
Again,  all  figured  tissues  are  to  be  subjected  to  a  surtax  of  5  per  cent.,  but
the  classification  of  such  tissues  will  be  a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty,
since  the  counts  of  yarn  used  and  the  degree  of  closeness  of  weaving  naturally
present  varieties,  even  within  the  small  space  of  a  square  metre  of  cloth.
It  has  also  been  suggested  to  us  that  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the
increase  in  the  duties  on  cotton  cambrics  will  have  an  injurious  effect  upon
the  at  present  flourishing  machine-embroidery  factories  in  Saxony,  where
imported  cotton  cambrics  are  extensively  used  as  the  material  for  the
embroidery  industry.
As  to  linen  yarns,  we  arc  informed  that  the  opinion  held  by  the  linenweaving ­
  trade  in  Prussia  is  that  the  protection  afforded
Isinen  Tarns.  to  yarn  spinners  by  the  present  tariff  is  opposed  to  their
interests,  and  that  the  weaving  factories,  employing  ten
times  as  many  workers  as  the  spinning  mills,  with  a  production  of  four  times
the  value  of  the  spinners’  output,  cannot  dispense  with  British  and  Bohemian
yarns,  as  neither  in  quantity  nor  quality  do  German  spins  suffice.
As  to  earthen  and  chinaware  (Nos.  730  to  733  inclusive),  our  records  show
that  German  shipments  of  these  goods  to  the  United
^and^htaa!*  -kingdom  amount,  in  value,  to  three  times  the  British
shipments  to  Germany.  The  trade  in  both  directions
has  tended  to  increase  of  late  years,  to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both
countries,  the  probability  being  that  the  German  goods  have  supplied  a  want
felt  here  as  regards  shapes,  designs,  &c.,  while  the  British  goods  have
C  4