ABSTRACT
Prussia was able to give up the Erfurt Union and return to the Federal Diet, because the Confederation of 1815 is simply an international league in which a state of Prussias power and standing may hope to be able to assert its independence even against a majority of smaller states. Prussia, however, can never comply with the Austrian demands in commercial policy without denying the whole political position. Prussia must, therefore, make it resolve in commercial policy to maintain the Zollvereins power of free self-determination, which is independent of any Austrian veto. However painful it may find a separation from the Confederation of 1815 and the disturbance of the long-accustomed relationships in many parts of the country and branches of industry. Prussia will be obliged, quite decisively, to prefer a north-German, but independent, Zollverein to a greater Customs Union dependent upon Austria. Extract from the Constitutionelle Zeitung, 9 April 1852.
