ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the views of Minister of Trade to the Prime Minister. Austria has one thing to prevent, namely that, at the Conferences of Cassel, the Zollverein, due to expire at the end of 1852, should be renewed before the Austro-German Customs Union is irrevocably settled on a sure foundation. Such a renewal would bind all the German states for twelve years longer to Prussias will in all national economic affairs. In order to support this proposition, all the advantages will have to be circumstantially described. The advantages that Germany might expect from such a Customs Union would be: the moral unity which the same tariff and commercial laws, the common administration of these affairs, and an unobstructed internal economy would stimulate. The general conference of the Zollverein states sat at Cassel from 7 July to 2 November 1850. It was interrupted by the political disorders in Hesse-Cassel and was resumed at Wiesbaden in January 1851.
