Yet this same man, who so much desired to keep down the Franco-German tariff, was destined eight years later to initiate a protectionist policy which set back the cause of Free Trade for at least a generation.
[Footnote 81: For that treaty, and Austria's desire in 1862 to enter the German Zollverein, see _The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord A.Loftus, _vol.ii.pp.

250-251.] What brought about this momentous change?
To answer this fully would take up a long chapter.

We can only glance at the chief forces then at work.

Firstly, Germany, after the year 1873, passed through a severe and prolonged economic crisis.

It was largely due to the fever of speculation induced by the incoming of the French milliards into a land where gold had been none too plentiful.