50 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



tive proportion of 70 per cent, for Austria and 

 30 per cent, for Hungary. Hungary possessed 

 already 53,000,000 florins, so that she would 

 only have to raise about 88,000,000 florins in 

 gold. A time was not set for the redemption in 

 gold of the Government paper currency, except 

 the one-florin bills, which were to be redeemed 

 after the passing of this act in any existing legal 

 tender except the old paper currency. _ The 

 new currency is established on a gold basis, and 

 the unit will be the krone, worth 1 franc 5 cen- 

 times in French money, 85 pfennige in German, 

 and in American money 20'3 cents. One kilo 

 of gold. 900 fine coins, 2,952 kronen or 3,280 

 kronen if of pure gold. Twenty- and ten-kronen 

 gold pieces are to be coined. Austria will only 

 coin 20-kronen pieces for private account, while 

 Hungary will coin both 20- and 10-kronen 

 pieces. The mints will be free for gold only in 

 either country. Ducats will continue to be 

 coined for commercial purposes. The gold cur- 

 rency will be supplemented with silver 1-krone 

 pieces, 835 fine, nickel pieces of 20 and 10 hel- 

 ler, and bronze coins of 2 and 1 heller, 100 

 heller making a krone. Alongside of the gold 

 coins, the silver coins of the country will re- 

 main in use. The silver florin of Austrian coin- 

 age will be equal to 2 kronen. The coinage 

 treaty with Hungary provides that 200,000,000 

 florins of silver, 60,000,000 florins of nickel, and 

 26,000,000 florins of bronze coin shall be coined, 

 according to the proportion of 70 and 30 per 

 cent, respectively. Agreements as to the con- 

 tinued circulation of the paper money and its 

 redemption will be made at the proper time. 

 The treaty will be in force until the end of 

 1910. In payment of obligations 42 Austrian 

 gold florins are equal to 100 kronen. The Min- 

 ister of Finance is empowered to negotiate a 

 gold loan of 183,456,000 florins bearing 4 per 

 cent, interest. The gold obtained shall imme- 

 diately be coined and held as a special deposit, 

 only to be disposed of by act of legislature. 



The Bohemian Compromise. The Aus- 

 gleich of 1890, made to settle the language ques- 

 tion between the Germans and the Czechs of 

 Bohemia, was virtually defeated by the action 

 of the Czechs and the Feudal Conservatives, 

 who, being in the majority, refused to accept 

 any further alteration of the proposed arrange- 

 ment to meet the views of the Government. 

 Count Taaffe's attitude was ambiguous, and the 

 German Left, who have been his principal sup- 

 porters, and who still insisted on the carrying 

 out of the Ausgleich, became very much embit- 

 tered against him. The Government finally de- 

 cided to carry out a part of the arrangement, 

 and accordingly created a circuit court in We- 

 kelsdorf, thereby inaugurating the division of 

 the different courts and administrative districts 

 according to the nationality of the inhabitants. 

 This was really one of the most important 

 clauses of the Ausgleich, and the decree of the 

 Minister of Justice was hailed with satisfaction 

 by the Germans, while the Czechs denounced 

 him in their meetings, and introduced into the 

 Reichsrath a bill to indict him for violating the 

 laws of 1868, which provide that the Govern- 

 ment has the right to create new courts, but has 

 to take the sense of the respective Landtag 

 first, whereas the last Bohemian Landtag had 



refused to give any opinion on the Ausgleich 

 question. The Minister of Justice proved that 

 the Bohemian Landtag had in former years ex- 

 pressed an opinion favorable to the creation of 

 the court in question, and the bill was lost. 



Session 01 the Reichsrath. One of the 

 chief acts of the session of 1891-'92 was to ratify 

 the new commercial treaties. Most of the com- 

 mercial treaties with other nations lapsed on 

 Feb. 1, 1892, and new ones had to be made. 

 Foremost stand the new treaties with Germany 

 and Italy, which were made for the space of 

 twelve years. These reduce the tariff on manu- 

 factured goods from Germany in return for a 

 reduction of duties on wheat, and effect a reduc- 

 tion of duties on Italian wine against a lower 

 tariff on Austrian manufactured goods. The 

 treaties contain the most-favored-nation clause, 

 by which all concessions made to other nations 

 must be made to the contracting party on de- 

 mand. The treaty with Switzerland, containing 

 similar conditions, was approved later. Other 

 important bills passed were the Vienna city rail- 

 roads bill, the currency reforms bill, a personal 

 income tax bill, which latter is intended to affect 

 incomes in their entirety without regard to their 

 origin. A bill taxing the transactions of the 

 stock exchange was passed, which will virtually 

 amount to a taxation on all trade in active 

 stocks. Not only the transactions on the ex- 

 change are to be taxed, but also all business done 

 in banks and in brokers' offices. This tax is 

 identical with the one put upon a change of 

 possession of real property. Care was taken to 

 arrange the tax so that it would not interfere 

 with the methods hitherto employed in carrying 

 on this business. Most of the transactions" are 

 in blocks of 5,000 florins, and therefore this 

 amount was taken as a unit and a tax of 10 

 kreuzern put upon it, and proportionately more 

 on larger amounts. Exempt from this taxation 

 are all transactions in money and exchange, for 

 as long as the currency of the country has not 

 been regulated even the soundest merchant trad- 

 ing with foreign countries has to buy foreign 

 coins and drafts in order to protect himself in 

 proper time against a loss by exchange. 



The Socialists. The Socialistic convention, 

 held on June 5, presented a picture of utter dis- 

 organization. It is remarkable that the so-called 

 International Socialistic party of Austria has to 

 contend with the very same difficulties that 

 prevent the organization of a great Liberal or 

 Clerical party. The Czechish workingmen stand 

 aloof, hold their own Socialistic conventions, and 

 build up their own organizations. The Social- 

 istic party in Austria is divided according to 

 nationality, and can not manage to keep peace 

 between its sections. The workingmen s clubs 

 numbered 331 in 1892 against 218 the year be- 

 fore, and 53 new workingmen's associations were 

 organized. 



A parliamentary commission, presided over 

 by Dr. Barnreither, made an inquiry regarding 

 the establishment and recognition of official 

 workingmen's committees for the protection of 

 the moral and material interests of the working 

 people. Such committees would be composed 

 of delegates freely elected by the workmen, and 

 masters would treat with them regarding the 

 regulation of wages, the disposition of the funds 



