Accession of Hamburg to the Zollverein

[5] In the year 1038, the emperor Conrad II granted rights to the Archbishop of Bremen to establish a fair at Stade, a small town on the Elbe 25 miles below Hamburg.

In 1725, the territory and the toll passed to the Electorate (later Kingdom) of Hanover, who enforced the collection with a ship at Brunshausen on the Elbe, at its confluence with the tributary river Schwinge.

They not only proposed the elimination of the differential duties in favour of Holland, but also the imposition of a protective duty on all goods imported by non-union ships, the establishment of joint consulates for the protection of economic interests abroad, which up to that time could only be very deficient due to the large number of different states, and a common trade flag of all the ships belonging to the union.

In this case, in favour to the union vessels, to which all the consumers of imported articles, as well as the exporting producers, would have to pay monopoly prices for sea transport.

[12] For the southern states the Alps effectively blocked off trade to ports in the south, leaving routes through the Customs Union as the only option.

[14] Holstein and Lauenburg were annexed by Prussia after the war in 1866, leading to an accession of their territories into the Customs Union, while Mecklenburg and the city states of Hamburg and Bremen, who engaged heavily in international trade, joined only in 1867 and 1888, respectively.

[17][18] The three Hanseatic cities, through their joint envoy Friedrich Krüger, voted against the Austrian proposal and made a declaration (formulated by Lübeck) that the events in Holstein did not justify Federal mobilisation, because the danger of immediate military collision had passed.

[19] Merck addressed the Senate on 25 June saying he regarded the policy of Lübeck, which was positive to the Prussian alliance and the threats of Richthofen as particularly serious considerations.

[21] The day after the Austrian defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz, on 4 July, the Senate submitted to the Burgerschaft the following urgent requests: (i) assent to the Prussian alliance, (ii) continue of the joint Brigade with Oldenburg, Bremen and Lübeck, and (iii) authorise the costs of mobilisation.

[22] On 18 August, the Hanseatic Minister-Resident in Berlin, Friedrich Geffcken, signed a treaty between Hamburg and Prussia (of one-year duration) concluding the alliance.

Under this treaty, all troops were placed under Prussian supreme command, the two states agreed to hold elections to an imperial parliament and their plenipotentiaries (along with those of other signatories of the alliance) would meet later in Berlin to draft a constitution, as soon as Prussia requested it.

From them are taken military sovereignty and that which makes them appear abroad as state governments - flags, consulates, posts, telegraphs, railroads, trade agreements, and so on.

Following clauses defining “yield”, it continued: The areas outside the Community customs border contribute to federal expenditure through the payment of an Aversum (a specific discretionary lump sum).

The provisions governing the payment of the Aversum justified the full voting rights of Hamburg and Bremen in the North German Federation.

[35] After Hamburg had agreed to the constitution of the North German Federation, negotiations were held between November 1867 and March 1868 on the size of the free area.

As a result, Hamburg enterprises who wished to sell into the Customs Union set-up sites in Ottensen, which then developed into a major industrial location.

This camp included shipping companies, entrepot traders, overseas exporters, the importers of goods into Hamburg that would have been subject to duty in the Customs Union, such as coffee and tea.

On 31 October 31, 1880, 32 merchants wrote to the Minister President of Prussia and Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, advocating the accession of Hamburg but with the formation of a free port district.

[47] In the first decade of the new federation's existence, Bismarck largely left trade policy in the hands of his deputy the liberal-minded President of the Chancellery Rudolf von Delbrück.

This change in customs policy would have the dual advantage of protection of domestic industry against cheap foreign imports, while increasing the revenue of the empire.

Secondly, a fall in agricultural prices led the agrarian interest, which previously opposed high duties on manufactures, to combine with industrialists to demand a general increase in the tariff.

[34] On 25 February 1881, there was a further application to the Federal Council for the inclusion of the Wandsbek salient, hitherto part of the free trade zone around Hamburg.

On 9 December 1880, George Annesley, the British Consul-General, reported "it may be clearly stated that there is no question whatever of Hamburg voluntarily joining the Zollverein; such a course at present is hardly discussed".

He now proposed intercepting goods being transported to Hamburg along the lower Elbe, in order to levy a duty, effectively a re-introduction of the Stade tolls without the exemptions.

By a majority of 16 to 5, it called on the Senate to set up a programme for future negotiations with Prussia and demand a smaller free trade district, including facilities for Hamburg's export industry.

Carl Petersen, the Commissioner for the Senate, said Hamburg would “still remain the emporium for the wide world of the German Fatherland”, to which she would be more closely united than ever.

On 21 February 1883 the Burgerschaft approved the plans, which included a canal to allow local navigation on the Elbe without passing through the remaining free trade zone.

A pamphlet published on 15 October 1888, under the heading "Hamburger Weh" stated:[56] "Instead of the coffee we drink today, we'll be waving, bells, as in Saxony.

[56] In preparation for its inclusion in the Customs Union, the state of Hamburg was obliged to carry out the following proceedings: The whole city was divided into a large number of small districts.

The Hamburg Free Port administration would give approval depending on whether the end products were primarily, although not necessarily exclusively, for re-export.