AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



55 



The exports of flour were 156,628,000 crowns in 

 value; of cattle, 92,3(51,000 crowns; of wheat, 

 84,646,000 crowns; of hogs, 59,477,000 crowns; of 

 rye, 47,807,000 crowns; of eggs, 34,497,000 

 crowns; of wine, 32,336,000 crowns; of corn, 

 31,744,000 crowns; of oats, 30,465,000 crowns; of 

 horses, 28,608,000 crowns. Of the total imports 

 21.95 per cent, were raw products and 78.05 per 

 cent, manufactures, while of the exports 60.78 

 per cent, were raw products and 39.22 per cent, 

 were manufactures. Of the imports 79.51 per 

 cent., 882,834,033 crowns, came from Austria, and 

 71.55 per cent, of the exports, 949,759,656 crowns, 

 went to Austria. From Germany the value of 

 54,533,108 crowns was imported, and exports to 

 Germany amounted to 141,200,927 crowns. The 

 imports from Great Britain were 15,956,251 

 crowns in value, consisting mainly of cotton 

 cloth and tobacco; the value of exports to Great 

 Britain, consisting principally of wheat flour and 

 barley, was 28,031,318 crowns. The largest com- 

 mercial intercourse, after these countries, is with 

 Servia, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Rou- 

 mania. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 at Austrian seaports during 1899 was 107,590, of 

 13,160,544 tons; cleared, 107,511, of 13,148,482 

 tons. Of the vessels 88 per cent., with 90 per 

 cent, of the tonnage, were Austrian, Italy having 

 the next largest percentage, and then Greece. At 

 the port of Trieste 8,468 vessels, of 2,164,927 tons, 

 were entered, and 8,487, of 2,166,289 tons, were 

 cleared. The Austrian commercial marine on 

 Jan. 1, 1900, comprised 12,039 vessels of all kinds, 

 of 244,301 tons, with 33,503 sailors. Of the total 

 number, which included 199 steamers, of 190,620 

 tons, 154, of 198,322 tons, were ocean vessels, 

 1,483, of 23,631 tons, were coasters, and 11,002, 

 of 22,348 tons, were fishing vessels and other 

 small craft. 



At Hungarian ports 19,223 vessels, of 2,223,302 

 tons, were entered and 19,218, of 2,226,733 tons, 

 were cleared during 1900. At Fiume were entered 

 10,739 vessels, of 1,681,151 tons; cleared, 10,732, 

 of 1,684,329 tons. The commercial fleet of Hun- 

 gary on Jan. 1, 1901, consisted of 61 ocean ves- 

 sels, of 63,002 tons, 154 coasting vessels, of 6,063 

 tons, and 223 fishing vessels, etc., of 332 tons; 

 total, 438 vessels, of 69,397 tons, of which 78, of 

 56,391 tons, were steamers. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. There 

 were 11,700 miles of railroad in Austria on Jan. 

 1, 1900, of which 4,713 miles were Government 

 railroads, 1,989 miles were private lines operated 

 by the Government, 4,998 miles were owned and 

 operated by companies, and 62 miles were foreign 

 railroads. The number of passengers carried in 



1899 was 142,296,000; tons of freight, 114,512,- 

 000; gross receipts, 296,837,000 florins; expenses, 

 193,412,000 florins; capital cost, 246,915,000. 



In Hungary the total length of completed rail- 

 roads on Jan. 1, 1901, was 17,108 kilometers, of 

 which the Government owned 7,662 kilometers 

 and operated 6,491 kilometers of companies' lines, 

 while 2,955 kilometers were owned and operated 

 by companies. The number of passengers in 1900 

 was 64,412,000; tons of freight, 42,577,000; gross 

 receipts, 11,472,000 sterling; expenses, 6,222,- 

 000; capital, 112,056,000. 



The number of letters and postal cards that 

 passed through the Austrian post-office during 



1900 was 1,055,791,710; samples and printed mat- 

 ter, 137,626,510; newspapers, 107,738.700. The 

 receipts were 107,718,310 crowns, and expenses 

 were 98,411,819 crowns. 



The number of letters and postal cards that 

 passed through the Hungarian post-office was 



319,770,000 in 1900; newspapers, 115,994,000; 

 samples and printed matter, 51,906,000; money 

 and postal orders, 21,018,000, of the value of 

 46,794,000 sterling; registered letters and par- 

 cels, 20,016,000. The receipts of the postal, tele- 

 graph, and telephone services were 47,103,000 

 crowns; expenses, 39,912,000 crowns. 



The total length of telegraph lines in Austria 

 in 1900 was 24,480 miles, with 107,750 miles of 

 wire. The number of messages in 1900 was 

 15,057,176. There were 266 telephone exchanges 

 and 105 interurban circuits, with a total length 

 of 79,750 miles of wire. The number of con- 

 versations in 1900 was 95,262,595. The telegraph- 

 lines of Hungary had a total length of 22,824 

 kilometers, with 114,831 kilometers of wire. The 

 number of messages in 1900 was 14,370,439. 

 There were 50 telephone exchanges, with 45 in- 

 terurban circuits and connections with Vienna 

 and Berlin. The total length of telephone wire 

 was 74,093 kilometers. The number of conversa- 

 tions was 37,301,358. 



The Triple Alliance. The alliance between 

 Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, which ex- 

 pires in May, 1903, was prolonged in its original 

 form for a further period of six years by a new 

 treaty signed at Berlin on June 26, 1902. A 

 dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hun- 

 gary, arranged in a conference between Prince 

 Bismarck and Count Andrassy in 1879, bound 

 each of the contracting powers to come to the 

 assistance of the other with its military and 

 naval forces in case of an attack on two sides 

 at the same time, an attack of France and Russia 

 against Germany, with or without Italy, or an 

 attack of Russia and Italy against the Austro- 

 Hungarian dominions. There existed previously 

 the Dreikaiserbund between the Emperors of Ger- 

 many, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, an under- 

 standing reached in 1873, which the entente cor- 

 diale between France and Russia unsettled. 

 Nevertheless the first German Emperor was re- 

 luctant to agree to the Austro-German military 

 pact, deeming it incompatible with his political 

 and family relations to the Emperor of Russia. 

 After it was carried through Prince Bismarck 

 always insisted that a good understanding with 

 Russia was an essential element of German pol- 

 icy, and after the dual alliance was expanded 

 into a triple alliance by the adhesion of Italy, 

 this military pact was uniformly represented as 

 purely defensive, a guarantee of peace, an insur- 

 ance against any disturbance of the existing 

 equilibrium. When the relations between Italy 

 and France became strained in consequence of 

 the French occupation of Tunis, Italy was easily 

 persuaded to abandon her position of isolation 

 and join, in 1883, the alliance of the central pow- 

 ers. Italian Irredentism in respect to the coast 

 provinces of Austria thereby received a check and 

 ceased to be a danger to the peace of Europe. 

 A tariff war with France further estranged Italy 

 from her former ally. The terms of the dual 

 alliance were after a time disclosed to the public, 

 but those of the tripartite treaty have always 

 been kept secret, though it may be inferred that 

 Germany can only call upon her allies for active 

 assistance in the event of a double attack, but 

 will assist if necessary either one of them which 

 is attacked from one side only. The burden of 

 armaments has borne most severely upon Italy, 

 the one of the three powers which had most to 

 make up in developing its military strength with 

 the weakest material resources. The heavy 

 strain of taxation and the unlikelihood that Italy 

 would receive compensation on the Adriatic, the 

 only field for national expansion, for any sacri- 



