ABSTRACT
The existence of social—as distinct from political—unrest was hardly surprising. Prussia followed with close attention the discussions of the Frankfurt Assembly’s proposals for absorbing the Zollverein in a larger customs union. The economic depression of the early ‘forties, the commercial crisis of 1847, the cholera epidemic of 1849 and the political uncertainties of revolution caused much distress. The Zollverein General Congress, which should have met in 1848 to settle the tariff for the years 1849 to 1851, was postponed. In August, 1848, expert commissioners from the German States arrived in Frankfurt-am-Main to assist the Assembly in its economic deliberations, and the opportunity was taken to hold an extraordinary meeting of representatives of Zollverein States. The Zollverein treaties were due to expire at the end of 1853 and Schwarzenberg planned to absorb the Zollverein into a wider customs union in which Prussia could play only a subordinate role.
