The economy of Germany is a highly developed social market economy. Due to a volatile currency exchange rate , Germany's GDP as measured in dollars fluctuates sharply. Exports accounted for It generates a great deal of knowledge in its own laboratories. Germany is rich in timber , lignite , potash , and salt. Some minor sources of natural gas are being exploited in the state of Lower Saxony.
Germany is the leading producer of wind turbines in the world. More than 99 percent of all German companies belong to the German " Mittelstand ", [ 46 ] small and medium-sized enterprises, which are mostly family-owned. Germany is the world's top location for trade fairs; [ 56 ] around two thirds of the world's leading trade fairs take place in Germany. The Industrial Revolution in Germany got underway approximately a century later than in the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, partly because Germany only became a unified country in The establishment of the Deutscher Zollverein German Customs Union in and the expansion of railway systems were the main drivers of Germany's industrial development and political union.
From , tariff barriers between increasing numbers of the Kleindeutschland German states were eliminated. Between and , 8, kilometres 5, mi of rail had been built and in Germany was building its own locomotives. Over time, other German states joined the customs union and started linking their railroads, which began to connect the corners of Germany. The growth of free trade and a rail system across Germany intensified economic development which opened up new markets for local products, created a pool of middle managers , [ clarification needed ] increased the demand for engineers, architects, and skilled machinists, and stimulated investments in coal and iron.
Another factor that propelled German industry forward was the unification of the monetary system, made possible in part by political unification. The Deutsche Mark, a new monetary coinage system backed by gold, was introduced in However, this system did not fully come into use as silver coins retained their value until The establishment of the empire inherently presented Europe with the reality of a new populous and industrialising polity possessing a considerable, and undeniably increasing, economic and diplomatic presence.
The influence of French economic principles produced important institutional reforms in Germany, including the abolition of feudal restrictions on the sale of large landed estates, the reduction of the power of the guilds in the cities, and the introduction of a new, more efficient commercial law. Nonetheless, political decisions about the economy of the empire were still largely controlled by a coalition of "rye and iron" , that is the Prussian Junker landowners of the east and the Ruhr heavy industry of the west.
