ABSTRACT
Friedrich von Motz’s work in 1829 sealed the fate of the Middle German Commercial Union. The commercial treaty with Bavaria and Wurttemberg, the agreements on road-building with Meiningen and Gotha and the acceptance by Holland of most of Prussia’s claims concerning freedom of navigation on the Rhine for subjects of the etats riverains prepared the way for the dissolution of the Union and for the founding of the Zollverein. On the establishment of the Zollverein, trade between Hesse-Cassel and the south of Germany became internal commerce instead of foreign commerce so that the disputed transit dues were reduced to a level acceptable to Hanover. A committee of the Diet reported favourably on the first Hanoverian proposal but before serious progress had been made in the matter Prussia had succeeded in forming the Zollverein. The various Zollverein treaties contained a clause which provided for the dissolution of the new union should Article 19 of the Federal Act ever come into force.
