LEIPZIG.
Leipzig, which may be said to be the commercial capital of the kingdom
of Saxony, is situated like Dresden, the political capital, at some distance
from the purely industrial zone, which extends from Plauen to Chemnitz
along the German slopes of the Erzgebirge. The city lies in a fertile
agricultural plain in the extreme north of the Saxon State, close to the
southern border of the Prussian province of the same name, and within
half-an-hour’s train journey of the great Prussian lignite mines at Halle.
It has attained its present prominence among the great trading cities of
Germany in spite of the disadvantage of being without any such special facilities
for water transport as are enjoyed by many of the other great cities of Germany.
Thus, while Dresden and Magdeburg are traversed by the Elbe, Munich by
the Isar, and Breslau by the Oder, Leipzig, which is practically without water
transport, ranks above them all in commercial importance, Berlin and Hamburg
alone being its superiors in this respect.
The city began to prosper early in the sixteenth century, when the
Emperor Maximilian secured to it the privilege, denied to all other towns
within a radius of 16 German miles, of holding annual fairs or markets. Since
that time three great fairs, visited by buyers and sellers from all parts of
Europe, have been held in the town regularly every year at New Year, Easter
and Michaelmas respectively. The New Year fair lasts a fortnight, and is of
interest only to the leather trade. The Easter and Michaelmas fairs each last
three weeks, and are occasions for the purchase and sale of a great variety
of goods, including books, furs, woollen and linen stuffs, groceries, toys, drugs,
glass, china, majolica and pottery ware. The Easter fair is visited by fur
dealers from countries so remote as Siberia, China, Japan, Tibet, and North and
South America.
It would seem as if the growing demand for improved means of transport
for the merchants and merchandise proceeding to and from the Leipzig fairs
must have suggested the first serious step in the introduction of railways into
Germany. For, in December, 1837, when the railway from Leipzig to Dresden,
was first opened to traffic, only one line of railway, four miles in length, which
had been constructed 18 months previously, was in operation in Germany, viz.,
that between Niiremburg and Fürth. Since that time Leipzig, mainly owing to
its fairs, has grown into a place of such importance in the German railway
system that the State Railway Authorities of Prussia and Saxony have felt
justified in deciding on the expenditure of 148,000,000 marks, or about
£7,400,000, in building a new central railway station in the town. The
municipality is contributing £900,000, while each of the two States referred to
contributes £3,250,000 towards this new station, which is now in course of
erection, and will, when finished, be the largest of the many great railway
stations in Germany.
Leipzig is noted among German cities for the multitude and wealth of the
endowments left by its merchant citizens both in olden and modern times, and
administered by the municipality. The town is also a very large landowner.
Irrespective of the areas owned by one of the great endowments which it
administers, and apart from the sites occupied by the town hall, municipal
schools, gas, electricity and "water works, slaughterhouse, market, theatres,
hospitals, and other public buildings, it owns about one-half of all the land
comprised within the municipal area. It has long been part of its policy to
purchase agricultural land at the outskirts, or beyond the precincts of the town,
in anticipation of its becoming valuable for building purposes, and pending
the maturing process much of this property is leased for agricultural purposes.
Thus the receipts of the municipality in respect of agricultural rents amounted
to £6,000 in 1904. In the same year it purchased 251 acres of land at the
outskirts at an average price of £4 12s. 6d. per acre, and sold six acres of
land matured for building at an average price of £15,000 per acre.
