23 .' ; . .',• 



number of independent farmers increased, and then, in 

 the period of 1895-1907, which included two years of high 

 Protection, it fell again. One is justified in thinking that 

 when Protection will have had time to work another ten 

 years the census will exhibit a decrease in the number of 

 independent farmers fully commensurate with the increase 

 which took place in the twelve years of comparative free- 

 dom of exchange. 



But there is yet another fact, full of significance, which 

 greatly detracts from the face value of the table quoted 

 above. This is, that the increase in the number of persons 

 engaged directly in agriculture proper is due to an 

 enormous increase of female labour. The figures of the 

 census show that whereas in 1882 the number of women 

 who were working in agriculture for wages was 2,251,860, 

 it only increased in the course of the following twelve 

 years to 2,388,148; and then, in the course of the next 

 twelve years jumped up by two millions, to 4,254,488. 

 This fact is most remarkable. It shows that there is no 

 longer any room in German agriculture for the small 

 man, working either as an independent farmer or even 

 as a labourer. He drifts into towns, leaving the women 

 to take his place. Protection, which has promised so 

 many blessings to the small farmer and the labourer, has 

 tremendously increased the process of rural depopulation 

 so far as the men — younger sons of the small farmer, for 

 the most part — are concerned.* 



The shortness of time which has elapsed since the 

 coming into force of the last Protectionist Tariff does not 

 allow of any precise statement of facts, and all it is 

 possible to do is to observe the circumstantial evidence 

 and note the tendencies. That these latter are working 

 to an enormous extent in favour of the larger landlords, 

 especially the semi-feudal Junkers, is not denied even by 

 them. That they at the same time must be working largely 



* Cf. Gothein, I.e., pp. 15-16. 



