984 DENMARK 



to progress with some 700 new holdings annually, or some 6,000 in all since the small-holding 

 act was passed in 1899. A new law was passed in 1909 further developing this movement. 



Two important laws relating to agricultural export have been passed within recent years, 

 viz. the law of May 27, 1908, dealing with the control of meat exported from Denmark, and 

 a similar one of April 12, 1911, dealing with the control of butter. They were based on sec- 

 tion 62 of the British Trade Mark Act 1905, which enabled the Danish farmers to register 

 a common trade mark as against all other trade marks in these articles. Thus all exported 

 meat or bacon receives a public trade mark and a Government stamp showing it to have 

 been passed for export at the control station either as first or second class produce. The 

 agricultural goods for export can therefore receive a trade mark from people who do not 

 trade themselves, but only investigate the quality of the articles. No butter is allowed to 

 be exported that contains over 16% of water or other preservatives than salt. 



Notable strides have latterly been made in Denmark as regards fostering the growth of 

 home industries and increasing the output of articles suitable for export, e.g. newly patented 

 machinery, motor engines, etc. A strong movement has commenced for the purpose of 

 making Denmark an industrial country as well as an agricultural one. 



The total revenue for the financial year 1910-11 was 7,894,589, and the expenditure 

 7,731,208. For 1911-12 the corresponding figures were 9,483,333 and 9,638,889, the 

 deficit being much smaller than the original estimate of 1,189,363. The estimated revenue 

 for the financial year 1912-13 was 5,705,688, and the expenditure 6,351,150, while the 

 estimated figures for 1913-14 are 6,475,076 and 6,510,247. 



The national debt ore March 31, 1911 amounted to 18,658,889 and in 1912 to 19,554,- 

 334. The state assets amounted to 39,441,289 in 1911 and 40,003,470 in 1912. 



Political History. The Ministry of Jens Christian Christensen (b. 1856) having 

 been forced by public opinion to resign in October 1908 (see E. B. viii, 39), owing to the 

 scandal caused by the arrest of the Minister of Justice, A. Alberti (b. 1851) on a self- 

 confessed charge of theft and forgery, a new Cabinet was formed by Niels Neergaard 

 (b. 1854). Hopes had widely been expressed for the formation of a national non-party 

 administration during this period of financial and political stress, but the Left Reform 

 party majority in the Folketing asserted itself, and the new members of the Cabinet 

 were drawn from the Moderate Left the extreme right section of the Government 

 bloc some of the members of the retiring Ministry also being included. A new Minis- 

 try of Trade and Commerce was instituted on this occasion. 



Besides having to deal with the Alberti defalcations, extending over nearly twenty- 

 five years and running close up to a million pounds sterling, and with the affairs of the 

 defrauded Zealand Peasants' Savings Bank, the Butter Export Association and other 

 concerns and transactions of Alberti's, the new Cabinet found a number of important 

 questions awaiting its immediate decision. The whole position of the national finances 

 had to be taken in hand, and relations with Iceland seemed as far from a mutually satis- 

 factory solution as ever; the proposals of the joint Danish-Icelandic Commission of 1907-8 

 had been rejected at the elections to the Alting in Reykjavik in the summer of 1908, 

 and the leader of the separatist movement, Bjarni Jonsson (b. 1846), had succeeded H. 

 Haffstcin (b. 1861) as Minister for Iceland. Then the findings of the Parliamentary 

 Defence Commission, largely differing from the advice given by the military experts, 

 had to form the subject of a bill dealing with the National Defences and with the much 

 vexed problem of the Copenhagen Land Defences. 



In presenting his first budget for 1909-10 in October 1908 M. Neergaard, who com- 

 bined the portfolio of Defence and Finances with that of Prime Minister, showed the 

 deficit of the financial year of 1907-8 to be 403,700 as against an estimated deficit of 

 222,000 on the current budget of 1908-9. One cause of the deficit was shown to be the 

 Tariff, passed in the spring. The duties on a number of articles of general consumption, 

 petrol, coal, salt, rice, etc., articles for the use of the shipping and agricultural industries 

 and for home industries generally, had been abolished or greatly reduced without the 

 state obtaining the necessary compensation in other directions. The increase of 

 salaries, the various new railways schemes passed in the previous Rigsdag session, the 

 increased cost of recent social reforms, all combined in making the balancing of the 

 national finances difficult. New sources of income had to be found and a system of 

 economy introduced in the various Government departments. 



In February 1909 the Neergaard Cabinet had at last completed its investigation of 



