526 Transactions. 



We shall now be able to appreciate the real force mainly respon- 

 sible for producing this rapid expansion, and to see how helpless 

 is Germany's own fiscal policy, or those of other nations, to 

 arrest, though they may impede, its progress. The soil of 

 Germany is cultivated to the utmost degree, and is devoted 

 mostly to the growing of food, and only to a comparatively 

 small extent to the growing of raw material for manufacture. 

 With an area only some 70 per cent, greater than the United 

 Kingdom, she has four times the number of persons engaged in 

 agriculture. In spite of this, she now fails even to feed by 

 any means the whole of her population. For a large portion of 

 her food-supply and for a much greater portion of her raw 

 materials she is dependent on other and younger nations. The 

 change which has been taking place is illustrated by the great 

 diminution in the flocks of sheep. In the twenty-one years 

 from 1873 to 1904 the sheep of the Kingdom of Prussia declined 

 from 19,670,000 to 5,650,000, and those of the whole of Germany 

 from 25,000,000 to 9,690,000. Pasture has been giving place 

 to intensive culture of the land; but, notwithstanding this, 

 Germany fails now to supply the whole of the food of her people. 

 In 1905 the value of her import of wheat was no less than 

 £16,470,000. The magnitude of her imports of raw materials 

 is sufficiently indicated by the values of her imports of wool 

 and cotton in the same year. Raw wool she imported to the 

 value of £16,360,000 ; woollen yarn, to the extent of another 

 £4,670,000 ; and cotton cost her £19,910,000. The census of 

 the same year showed an increase in population during the 

 quinquennial period of 4,087,277. This represents an annual 

 increase of population almost equal to the total population of 

 New Zealand, and the area of Germany is only double that of 

 New Zealand. This increase in population is considerably more 

 than double that of the United Kingdom. If the same rate of 

 increase were continued, the population of Germany would 

 double in some forty-five years. 



Now, this growing population has to be supplied with food 

 and raw materials, and it can only be done by the export of 

 manufactures or the rendering of other services. For progress 

 in manufacture she has many advantages. List perceived it 

 long ago. In the year 1844 he was able to write, " If any nation 

 whatever is qualified for the establishment of a national manu- 

 facturing power it is Germany ; by the high rank which she 

 maintains in science and art, in literature and education, in 

 public administration, and in institutions of public utility ; by 

 her morality and religious character, her industry and domestic 

 economy ; by her perseverance and steadfastness in business 

 occupations, as also by her spirit of invention ; by the number 



