Dec. 1896.] AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN GERMANY. 



251 



AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN GERMANY. 



An earlier number of this Journal* contained some informa- 

 tion relating to the extent of agriculturaFdepression in Germany, 

 and to the measures of relief contemplated by the Imperial 

 Government. In connection with this question, the Board of 

 Agriculture have received through the Foreign Office copies of a 

 memorandum, drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture at Berlin, 

 recapitulating and explaining the legislative and administrative 

 measures introduced in recent years by the State Government 

 for the encouragement of agriculture in Prussia. 



In a precis of this document prepared by Mr. Whitehead, of 

 Her Majesty's Embassy at Berlin, it is stated that while it 

 may be the case that under exceptionally favourable circum- 

 stances, farming may still be continued at a profit in Germany, 

 some idea of the average position of agriculturists in the king- 

 dom may be gathered from statistics of mortgages incurred and 

 paid off. These show that the indebtedness of land in the 

 rural districts of Prussia has been steadily increasing, and that 

 the annual excess of new mortgages over those paid off amounted 

 during the last nine years to an average of 8,500,000£. This 

 increase of indebtedness would lose a part of its significance if 

 it could be shown that the value of land had increased, or that 

 the money borrowed had been sunk in improvements. As 

 regards town property this may be the case, but it is not so 

 with agricultural land, the value of /which has generally fallen, 

 or, at least, remained stationary. Land would, it is held, have 

 fallen to a more appreciable extent, were it not that the generally 

 low rate of interest for money, the hope of better times, and the 

 increased demand for country residences by persons who treat 

 the possession of land as a luxury and not as an investment, 

 have maintained it above its natural level. It appears that 

 improvements in land or agricultural buildings have been made 

 in very few cases, except by some co-operative associations, so 

 that the greater part of the increased indebtedness has no doubt 

 been incurred for purposes of unproductive expenditure, and 

 implies an actual deterioration in the economic position of the 

 landowners. 



It is pointed out that among the causes of this lamentable 

 state of things there is in the first place the current law of 

 inheritance. This law gives equal claims to all the children and 

 leads to burdens being put on the land for the allowances of the 

 younger ones. Secondly, in prosperous times land was often 

 bought with only small payments on account, the greater part 

 of the purchase price remaining as a mortgage. While farming 



* Journal of Board of Agriculture, Vol. II., No. 2, p. 145. 



