Law of Population 93 



an abnormal number of marriages, bringing the average 

 of the decade to the high figure of 8*8 per iooo persons. 

 In 1871, 1872, and 1873 the number of marriages per 

 1000 persons were respectively 10-4, io-i, and 9-7. The 

 explanation of the birth-rate being somewhat higher in 

 the decade 1874-83, which had no abnormal mortali- 

 ties notwithstanding that the marriage-rate fell from an 

 average of 8-8 to 8-2 per 1000 persons, is found in the 

 fact that the large number of marriages in the last four 

 years of the first decade yielded the greater number 

 of their resultant births in the second. 



The excess of emigration over immigration did not 

 amount to more than 5 per cent of the natural increase 

 before the war. But the access of militarism after it, 

 the stringency of the conscription, and the accom- 

 panying burdens were the inciting causes of a vastly 

 increased emigration. In place of an annual departure 

 of 100,000 before the war, the excess of emigration over 

 immigration rose to an annual average of 750,000 in 

 the decade 1874-83, and 791,000 in the next. 



There was great extension in the Prussian Empire of 

 industrial and commercial enterprise between 1893 and 

 1903, and one result was that while the death-rate 

 declined nearly 14 per cent, the birth-rate declined only 

 3-5 per cent, and the decennial increase of the popu- 

 lation bounded from three millions in the decade 1884- 

 93 to five millions between 1894 and 1903, the rate of 

 increase having risen from 11 -i to 16 -2 per cent. 



From 790,000 in the previous decade, the annual 

 excess of emigration fell to less than 180,000. This 

 decline in the amount of emigration was consequent 

 upon the great material betterment that had accrued 

 to the working-classes, and rendered them more con- 

 tent with their surroundings in the home country. 

 Although few posts were vacated by death and by 

 emigration, the multitude of such created by the vast 



