Internal Austro-Hungarian Embassy Document on Trade

[Hamburg]: [k. und k. Generalkonsulat], 1898. Half-linen boards; 298 pp. Index. Type script with blueprint copies of tables and a few handwritten pages; minor hand-written corrections throughout. In German. Very good; with library or embassy numbers on cover; stamps of the Austrian Trade Museum; two withdrawal stamps dated March 18, 2010; light scuffing and wear to covers; 1 page loose. Apparently a one-of-a-kind internal report of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy in Hamburg analyzing international trade of Germany for 1897. 1897 is the year Rudolf Diesel built his first diesel engine and the year Bayer AG invented the Aspirin. This unusual book is approximately ½ narrative and ½ statistics with a detailed analysis of German international business: trade with the USA, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela and China. Much of the content deals with shipbuilding and the number of ships registered in Hamburg. Extensive statistical comparisons between 1896 and 1897. It appears that the Austro-Hungarian embassy collected statistics on German commerce and then created this book for their government. Provides an insight on Germany’s international trade at the end of the 1800s and is an interesting example of the type of reports written in embassies around the world. Presumably American Embassies, Chinese Embassies, and others produce very similar reports for their governments today.