Principality of Lübeck, were not included. Likewise some exclaves of Brunswick and Hanover. Many of these excluded areas were included in the Prussian customs administration. Conversely, some Prussian exclaves and the county Minden in Prussia were connected to the Steuerverein. The Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe joined in 1838. The detached part of Electoral Hesse known as the County of Schaumburg (which bordered independent Schaumburg Lippe) remained outside of the Steuerverein. Negotiations took place between Hanover and Prussia, prior to the defection of Brunswick, but Electoral Hesse vetoed this prospect. The Prussian government district of Minden formed a salient into the territory of the Steuerverein. By agreement with Hanover, Oldenburg and Brunswick, the Prussian government joined various parts of the district of Minden to the Steuerverein (1841). Due to the geographical location, the inhabitants of the neighbouring parts of the Steuerverein habitually used the town of Minden for the sale of their arable and livestock farming products. Prussia allowed this trade to continue duty free so that Minden could continue to benefit as a market centre for the region. Defection of Brunswick Brunswick defected to the Zollverein in 1841, causing much bad feeling with Hanover. At the same time a treaty for the prolongation of the Steuerverein was contracted by Hanover, Oldenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe. Brunswick insisted upon its outlying dependencies being included with the Zollverein, resulting in extensive smuggling along interlacing portions of Hanoverian and Brunswick territory. So the two unions agreed by treaty in 1845 that the Hartz and Weser districts of Brunswick were reincorporated in the Steuerverein. This treaty and six supplementary agreements facilitated trade across their mutual customs border. Tariff Regime In 1846 Hanover reached a trade agreement making important tariff concessions to the United States of America. Oldenburg followed suit in 1847. At this time Steuerverein production was mainly agricultural and largely exported, whilst the consumption of imports per capita was reckoned to be more than double that of the Zollverein. Accession to the Zollverein, under the external tariff then in force, would raise the import duties on articles of consumption, especially on Colonial produce, resulting in an increase in the cost of living, and thus also of production. For example, sugar duties in the Zollverein were 9 thalers per quintal (i.e. a hundredweight or 50 kg), but only 3 thalers in the Steuerverein. The Zollverein duty on wine was 48 thalers per hogshead (this Hanoverian measure being