AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



71 



abandoned at the last moment by the Poles, 

 who by the fall of the ministry would lose their 

 dominant position. An amendment, proceed- 

 ing from the Poles, was voted instead, which 

 necessitated the reopening of negotiations be- 

 tween the Austrian and Hungarian Cabinets. 

 In Austria the mode of collecting the sugar 

 duty gave the opportunity for analogous frauds. 

 The tax was paid on the raw sugar as it entered 

 the refinery. The manufacturers, by adultera- 

 tion or other means, persuaded the excise offi- 

 cers that their raw sugar contained a smaller 

 percentage of sugar than was the case, and 

 managed to get the export bounty on as much 

 as they paid the tax on, and to escape paying 

 excise duty on all that they sold in the home 

 market. This evil was corrected by imposing 

 the duty on the manufactured product, at 10 

 florins per 100 kilos. A tax of 1 florin 50 

 kreuzers was placed on liquid sugar. 



The customs tariffs agreed on are of a highly 

 protective character. On fine cotton yarn and 

 some other articles that are materials that can 

 be greatly enhanced in value by further pro- 

 cesses the duties are reduced or taken off; on 

 ordinary woolen yarns they are doubled. On 

 cotton prints they are raised from 60 and 70 to 

 100 and 120 florins per 100 kilos; on certain 

 linen goods, from 40 to 80 florins ; on fine iron- 

 wares, from 15 to 25 and 50 florins ; on optical 

 instruments, from 125 to 200 florins ; on pianos, 

 from 10 to 40 florins; on silk or part silk 

 clothing, from 200 to 500 florins ; on the finest 

 metal wares, from 30 to 50 florins. On linen 

 yarns the increase is 50 per cent. ; on coarse 

 cotton goods, 10 per cent.; on fine cotton 

 goods, 20 per cent. ; on woolen goods, 25 per 

 cent. ; on silks and figured linen goods, over 

 10 per cent. ; on iron, from 20 to 30 per cent. ; 

 and on iron manufactures and machinery, 80 

 and 100 per cent. 



These high and in some cases prohibitive 

 duties affect chiefly German trade, as the 

 British, French, and Belgian imports of manu- 

 factures had already been greatly reduced 

 since the tariff of 1882. 



In return for the protection of Austrian 

 manufactures, the Hungarians obtained high 

 duties on agricultural products. The duty on 

 Indian corn is raised from 25 to 50 kreuzers 

 per 100 kilos; on barley and oats, from 25 to 

 75 kreuzers; on rye, from 25 kreuzers to 1 

 florin 50 kreuzers; on wheat, from 50 kreu- 

 zers to 1 florin 50 kreuzers; on flonr and 

 bread, from 1 florin 50 kreuzers to 3 florins 75 

 kreuzers per 100 kilos. The cattle duties are 

 raised from 10 to 15 florins per head on oxen; 

 from 2 to 3 florins on heifers; and from 1 

 florin to 1 florin 50 kreuzers on calves. 



The ten years' treaty contains provisions for 

 abolishing the free ports of Trieste and Fiume 

 at the end of 1889. It also renews the charter 

 of the Austro-Hungarian Bank on the condi- 

 tion that two fifths of its notes in circulation 

 must be covered by a metallic reserve. 



The rejection of the petroleum duties by the 



Austrian Reichsrath necessitated the renewal 

 of conferences between the two Cabinets. The 

 Hungarian ministers proposed modifications in 

 the customs tariffs, which the Austrian minis- 

 try would not accept. Experts were called in 

 to decide whether admixtures in petroleum 

 could be detected by chemical examination, 

 and while those on the Austrian side testified 

 in the affirmative, the Hungarian chemists de- 

 nied that there existed any practicable means 

 for detecting the artificial compounds. The 

 conference in Vienna ended in the beginning 

 of October, without result. 



The Roumanian Treaty of Commerce. The com- 

 mercial treaty with Roumania expired on 

 June 1, 1886. The treaty was of benefit to 

 Austria only, and brought Roumanian grain 

 and cattle into competition with similar Hun- 

 garian products. The Hungarian authorities 

 had therefore sought to defeat its provisions 

 by prohibiting the importation even of salted 

 and preserved meats, ostensibly on the ground 

 of cattle-disease. The Roumanian Govern- 

 ment by way of retaliation ordered, from 

 March 21, the chemical analysis of articles of 

 consumption at the frontier, especially of flour 

 and spirits. The' Hungarians objected to the 

 renewal of the treaty unless this vexatious 

 order were revoked. The negotiations failed 

 because the Hungarian land-owners were un- 

 willing to again encounter Roumanian compe- 

 tition. Under the old treaty there was a brisk 

 exchange of Austrian manufactures for Rou- 

 manian cattle and grain, until the Hungarians, 

 in 1882, under pretense of typhus, shut out 

 Roumanian cattle. The result was, that in 

 Roumania thousands of oxen died for lack of 

 fodder, and the impoverished owners bought 

 no more Austrian goods, while in Austrian 

 cities during the severe winter of 1885-'86 the 

 cost of meat rose to an unprecedented price. 

 The lapse of the Roumanian treaty disappoint- 

 ed the people of Austria in a scarcely less de- 

 gree than the Roumanians, and was the begin- 

 ning of the state of exasperation at Hungarian 

 arrogance that rose to a greater height on the 

 failure of negotiations for a new ten years' 

 treaty between the two monarchies, and found 

 vent in national recriminations over the Janski 

 affair. The Austrians of all nationalities re- 

 sent the dominant position that Hungary often 

 assumes in imperial affairs, though she con- 

 tributes but 30 per cent, toward the common 

 expenses of the dual monarchy. The Hunga- 

 rians on their part consider dualism a failure, 

 since the subordination of the German to the 

 Slav element under the Taaffe regime, and 

 after the Janski incident, which they inter- 

 preted as an insult and a menace to their con- 

 stitution the opposition in the Hungarian Par- 

 liament made a vigorous appeal for a separa- 

 tion of the military forces of the two mon- 

 archies and the creation of a national army, 

 sworn to support the Constitution. 



Austria. The Cisleithan monarchy has a 

 central legislature, called the Reichsrath, and 



