Mr. Judd to Mr. Seward.
Sir:* * * * * * * *
The Zollverein treaty of the German states, of which Prussia is the head, expires by limitation in 1865. Three years ago a commercial treaty was negotiated between Prussia and France, a copy of which I have heretofore forwarded to the department. That treaty was intended as the basis for the renewal of the Zollverein treaty between the German states. Through the influence of Austria, with some of the states of the Zollverein, negotiations for the renewal of that league, on the basis of the French treaty, were delayed and postponed, until it became a necessity for Prussia to announce that on the first of October the Zollverein treaty would be definitely closed with all those states [Page 225] who chose to become parties to it. Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Nassau, and Hesse Darmstadt had refused, up to the very last moment, to accede to the treaty. The prospect of being excluded from the benefit of a new Zollverein aroused the commercial and manufacturing interests in those states to such a degree that economical and material interests prevailed as against political sympathies and affiliations, and, by the first instant, all of these states had given in their adhesion, and a conference is now sitting here, in Berlin, to close up and ratify the new Zollverein treaty for another period of twelve years from January 1, 1866.
When the conference shall have completed its labors, the final ratifications will be exchanged between France and Prussia for itself, and on behalf of the other Zollverein states, an event which will note a great triumph of Prussian diplomacy and influence in Germany.
When all the ratifications are exchanged, I will forward to the department copies of the new treaties, and the schedule and tariffs established thereby.
* * * * * * * *
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.