ABSTRACT
Bismarck's achievement of political power was to be closely intertwined with the history of Prussian constitutionalism but, despite his earlier claim to be attracted by the career of a statesman under a free constitution, Bismarck launched his political career as a committed opponent of liberal demands for a constitution. Symptomatic of the dynamic increase in Prussian power in the first half of the nineteenth century was Prussia's role in the foundation of a German customs union or Zollverein in 1834, the administration of which Friedrich Ancillon, the Prussian foreign minister, had deemed an appropriate vehicle for an aspiring young diplomat like Bismarck at the end of the decade. Both the economic and political significance of the Zollverein can easily be exaggerated by historians who seek to interpret German history in this period in the light of the subsequent wars of unification. Bismarck, however, was eventually to achieve power despite his political views rather than because of them.
