ABSTRACT
The slight improvement in economic and social conditions that had prefaced the elections to the Constituent Reichstag did not last long. The year 1867 brought a short and mild downturn of the trade cycle that must have started for the Dusseldorf area in the spring since many of the Handelskammern attributed it to the Luxemburg crisis, which began on April 1. In Solingen the year was favorable for the arms industry but poor for the rest of the cutlery industry; many of the workers were either unemployed or without full-time employment. The iron industry in the Ruhr and in Dusseldorf seems to have had a poor year. Iron prices were depressed and many firms reduced both production and work forces from the levels of the previous year. For agriculture the situation was not very different than it had been in 1866.
