EVOLUTION AND DEGENERATION OF INSTITUTIONS 97 



III. The Budgets of Germany, France, and England. 



(a) Germany. We have just seen that in the 

 principal States of the Empire there is still an 

 extensive amount of collective property. In 

 Prussia, for instance, besides forest land, there 

 are nearly 1,500,000 acres of arable land, an area 

 equal in extent to one of the smaller departments 

 of France. 



(6) France. Of the old collective property of 

 France only forest land remains, all grazing and 

 arable land having long since been alienated. 



The budgets of modern times, however, still 

 exhibit traces of the old feudal system. The 

 State, for instance, up to the last few years, 

 continued to receive quit-rents for properties 

 under the old system. 1 The budget shows an 

 annual decrease in these receipts, having fallen 

 from 100,000 francs in 1857 to 32 francs in 

 1869. In 1876, however, there was a rise to 

 2000 francs. 



(c) England. Here the decline of collective 

 property is still further exhibited. In the 

 Statistical Abstract published in 1877, the net 

 revenue from Crown lands for Great Britain and 

 Ireland figures at 40,000 net. Among the " mis- 

 cellaneous receipts" we find only 200,000 which 

 can be regarded as revenue derived from collec- 

 tive property, i.e. 15 millions in a budget 



1 Leroy-Beaulieu, Traitede la science des finances, i., p. 35, 

 G 



