Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/293

 1899.] Germany. — The Colonies. [285

and parasols, which accounted for 18,000 marks, and of beer of the value of 9,000 marks. The imports from New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago had a value of 206,000 marks, including cocoanuts and copra to the value of 82,000 marks, and tobacco leaf of the value of 83,000 marks. The exports to these colonies amounted to 271,000 marks. From German South- West Africa were imported goods valued at 184,000 marks, in which guano figured to the extent of 158,000 marks, and ostrich and heron plumes to the extent of 14,000 marks. German exports to this colony had a value of 2,894,000 marks, which, however, include the cost of the rails and other materials for the railway line which was being built at the expense of the empire. The value of the beer imported into the colony from Germany reached the sum of 171,000 marks. From German West Africa Germany imported goods to the value of 3,643,000 marks. Cocoanuts and copra accounted for 857,000 marks, palm and cocoanut oil for 440,000 marks, cocoa beans for 270,000 marks, and indiarubber for 1,714,000 marks. The exports to this territory had a value of 3,564,000 marks, including gunpowder of the value of 514,000 marks, spirits to the value of 523,000 marks, beer of the value of 238,000 marks, rice of the value of 278,000 marks, and coined silver of the value of 108,000 marks. From German East Africa Germany received imports of the value of 579,000 marks, including coffee of the value of 128,000 marks, indiarubber of the value of 171,000 marks, wax of the value of 101,000 marks, and ivory of the value of 17,000 marks. The German exports to this colony had a value of 3,325,000 marks, including coined silver of the value of 880,000 marks, artillery ammuni- tion of the value of 126,000 marks, and wine and beer of the value of 302,000 marks.

Altogether Germany received imports from her colonies of the value of 4,617,000 marks, and exported to them goods and silver coins of the value of 10,149,000 marks, making a total trade of 14,766,000 marks, or 738,300Z. sterling, which is not quite one-sixth per cent, of the whole foreign trade of Germany. The subsidies to these colonies and protectorates for 1899 amounted to 14,788,000 marks, or 739,400Z. sterling, exclusive of the expenses connected with Samoa, of 60,000£. sterling paid as subventions to steamship lines, and of expenditure on postal and telegraph administration, naval stations, and the service of the Foreign Office.

A charter was granted in October by the German Govern- ment to the North- West Cameroons Company, recently formed to undertake the development of a portion of the colony. The territory covered by the concession has an extent of 80,000 square kilometres (approximately 34,000 square miles), so that it is about the size of the kingdom of Bavaria. The concession is bounded on the south by the river Sannaga, and on the east by a line which starts from the intersection of the Sannaga