AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 125 



The peasants, besides the large village properties, are 

 almost all share-holders in the forest companies that we 

 have described. They are besides nearly all miners, and 

 hold shares frequently in one or two iron foundries. In 

 winter the mines are worked and charcoal is burnt for the 

 following " campaign " at the blast-furnace. In conse- 

 quence of this arrangement, which leaves them time in the 

 spring and autumn to attend to their meadows, while the 

 short summer is devoted to field tillage, the year is filled 

 up in a manner suited to the habits, and which formerly 

 was equally subservient to the interests, of the villagers. 

 They were long in possession of a monopoly of great 

 value — the production of steel, for which their iron is 

 particularly well suited. The temptation that greater 

 countries and more highly educated men have not been 

 able to resist of shaping the market to their pleasure 

 was too strong to be resisted by the villagers, the artisans, 

 and even the Princes of Siegen (then a branch of the 

 House of Nassau) ; and an apparently well calculated 

 plan was laid, by which the foundries and steel-works 

 bound themselves not to work more than a certain num- 

 ber of days in the year. The valuable product they 

 furnished was thus not allowed to overstock the market, 

 and charcoal and ore were kept at a moderate price, and 

 were mostly worked up by the owners of the mines and 

 woods. 



The result has been that which infallibly results from 

 all such attempts to restrict the flow of industry for the 

 benefit of a few. The scarcity of iron in Germany 

 obliged the neighbouring states to look elsewhere for 

 supplies. Sweden was found to abound in ores of the 

 best quality, and to be especially rich in the peculiar 



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