Germany–Industries

Abstract

[MWS 6.2 (2006) 219-230] ISSN 1470-8078 Germany—Industries Max Weber No general statistics regarding industrial products are published in Germany. True, such material is carefully collected, but it is placed exclusively at the disposal of the government, to be used in consider ing the commercial policy of the nation toward foreign countries. It is impossible to give exact statistics, except for the products of mines and foundries; further, for beer, alcohol, and sugar. For the greater part, the coal and iron deposits of Germany are already in permanent ownership and are being worked. In 1903, a year of depression, the production of coal was 162,500,000 tons, worth $275,000000; i.e., 18 per cent of the world's output, or just half as much as the production in the United States, and about two thirds as much as the production in Great Britain. The production of iron ore was 21,200,000 tons (United States, 35,500,000); of pig-iron, 10,000,000 tons, or 21V2 per cent of the world's output (United States, 18,300,000; Great Britain, 8,900,000 tons); of steel, 8,800,000 tons (United States 14,700,000; Great Britain, 8,900,000). The exports of coal and other mineral combustibles exceeded the imports by only 5,000,000 tons (export principally to Belgium and Austria, import chiefly from Great Britain), so that the home-consumption was about 157,000,000 tons. In this respect Germany is in contrast to Great Britain, which exports a large part of her coal production. The exports of iron ore exceeded the imports by about 2,000,000 tons, so that about 23,200,000 tons were reduced in German furnaces. According to conservative estimates, the coal beds of Germany contain 120,000,000,000 tons of minable coal. It is further estimated that the coal beds of Upper Silesia, and especially those of Westphalia and the Rhine country, will outlast those of England by five centuries, taking into account the technical mining capacity of the coal and supposing the same rate of prog ress in both cases. No other country in Europe has similarly lasting coal deposits, except Belgium. In all other European countries the coal-fields are considerably less extensive, as, for instance, in France,© Max Weber Studies 2006, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London El 7NT, UK. 220 Max Weber Studies Russia, and Austria; and they will be more rapidly exhausted than those of Germany. The consumption of coal per head is consider ably less than in England, and also less than in Belgium or in the United States, but it is greater than in the other European states. The home-consumption of pig-iron was only 98.1 kilograms per head, as against 235 in the United States and 137 in England. These low figures for Germany are accounted for by the fact that in Germany the railway system is essentially already built; though the produc tion of pig-iron per head in Germany has increased more rapidly in recent years than in the United States. In the depression-year of 1903 the production per head was 173.9 kilograms; so that four-ninths of this amount had to find a foreign market. In 1904 imports of iron ore increased; but exports of pig-iron decreased, showing an increase in home-consumption. The ratio of the production of steel to pig-iron in Germany was greatest in 1903, the proportion being 87.3 to 100 (United States, 80.7 to 100; Great Britain, 57.1 to 100). In recent years this proportion has increased more rapidly than in the United States, or in Great Britain. Thus, as regards coal and the raw materials of the iron industry, Germany does not have to rely upon imports from foreign countries. For the most part, further, Germany consumes such raw materials, instead of exporting them. Only on the coasts and borders is there any exchange with foreign nations. As to the geographical relation of the coal mines and the iron mines to each other, it cannot be said that this is as favorable in...