Steuerverein

A new attempt to forge a north German customs union was made and an agreement between Hanover and Brunswick came into force on 1 June 1835.

In return, the Steuerverein took measures to suppress smuggling into the Zollverein, including adjustments of outlying territory to provide a more easily policed customs cordon.

Negotiations took place between Hanover and Prussia, prior to the defection of Brunswick, but Electoral Hesse vetoed this prospect.

By agreement with Hanover, Oldenburg and Brunswick, the Prussian government joined various parts of the district of Minden to the Steuerverein (1841).

Due to the geographical location, the inhabitants of the neighbouring parts of the Steuerverein habitually used the town of Minden for the sale of their arable and livestock farming products.

[7] In 1846 Hanover reached a trade agreement making important tariff concessions to the United States of America.

[7] At this time Steuerverein production was mainly agricultural and largely exported, whilst the consumption of imports per capita was reckoned to be more than double that of the Zollverein.

Accession to the Zollverein, under the external tariff then in force, would raise the import duties on articles of consumption, especially on Colonial produce, resulting in an increase in the cost of living, and thus also of production.

[3] In 1850, Austria proposed an amalgamation of the three customs unions in Germany, that of the Austrian Empire, the Zollverein and the Steuerverein (the first two including territories beyond the German Confederation).

This was to compensate for the loss of profits from the transit trade, and as a consideration for the greater consumption of taxed articles, such as foreign wines and colonial produce, compare with the Zollverein.

Another concession was that British iron could be imported free of duty, for the completion of the Hanoverian railway lines, for a limited period.

Throughout Hanover, where the benefit of low tariffs were greatly valued, the accession to the Zollverein caused much dissatisfaction and a ministerial crisis.