Sept. 1895.] AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN GERMANY. 



145 



AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN GERMANY. 



In a report on the agricultural position of Germany,* prepared 

 by Mr. Whitehead; Second Secretary in Her Majesty's Embassy 

 at Berlin, it is stated that German agriculture has been subject 

 to recurring depressions during the vvJiole of the present century. 

 In the days before the means of communication had been so 

 highly developed, and before foreign competition had become a 

 factor in the matter, both good harvests and bad harvests gave 

 cause for complaint. In the former case, the price of grain fell ; in 

 the latter, the amount of the crop was too small to be remunera- 

 tive. During the latter half of the century, the conditions of 

 agriculture have undergone a complete change, and it has in 

 general passed from a system of low or " extensive " to high- or 

 " intensive " culture, but the complaints of agriculturists have 

 remained the same. 



In consequence of the complete failure of the cereal crop, the 

 year 1817 vvas one of famine prices in Germany. In the follow- 

 ing years, 1820-80, a succession of good harvests brought prices 

 to their lowest level, and reduced German agriculture to the 

 worst straits it has known during this century. This was attri- 

 buted at the time to the improvements in agricultural methods 

 and the establishment of agricultural schools, by which production 

 had been increased to such an extent that it could no longer 

 pay. Young people were warned against adopting the agricul- 

 tural profession, and the value of landed property sank to the 

 lowest point. 



In the following decade, 1830-40, the complaints of agricul- 

 turists continued, but as there had been occasional bad harvests, 

 the trouble was no longer attributed to over-production. The 

 most conflicting lemedies were proposed, some looking for relief 

 to freo trade and condemning the closing of the frontier, and 

 vice versa. Since that time, the increase of the population and 

 industrial enterpri-e has gradually transformed Germany from a 

 self-supporting agricultural country into a grain-importing State, 

 and the influence of foreign competition upon the price of agri- 

 cultural produce has made itself felt. 



Mr. Whitehead observes that there can be no doubt that a 

 severe depression in agriculture exists at the present time in 

 Germany. The unanimous opinion of all the Parliamentary 

 representatives of the landed interest, both in the Prussian 

 Landtag and in the Reichstag, the formation of a distinct 

 Agrarian party, and the eflforts made by that party to obtain 

 some means of relief, are suflBcient proof of this ; and the present 



* Foreign Office Report, Miscellaneous Series, No. 3G1. Trice 4^d. 



