ABSTRACT
In the Europe of the Holy Alliance and the Carlsbad decrees, demands for far-reaching political reforms and the unification of Germany had been silenced. The days of the wars of liberation, of the festival at the Wartburg and the radical students of the Burschenschaften seemed long gone and the hopes of the liberal nationalists were dashed. The Prussian customs law of 1818 is the most dramatic case in point, not only because it created a free market for 10.5 million Germans, but also because after 1815 the Prussian provinces were scattered even more widely than before. In 1832 the greatest champion of protective tariffs, Friedrich List, returned to Germany as United States consul in Leipzig. List’s experiences in America reinforced his conviction that a country on the verge of industrialisation needed protective tariffs. Although his schemes for protective tariffs were frustrated, List had far greater success as a propagandist for railways.
