Agriculture in Portugal. 



509 



of German wool is not even approximately sufficient, 

 either in quality or in quantity, for the requirements of the 

 various wool manufactures, especially those of the textile 

 branch, and that every burden on raw material must reduce 

 the productive power of home industries, and must therefore 

 entail serious injuries on manufacturers and workmen. They 

 therefore protest against the introduction of a wool duty, and 

 also declare at the same time that the injury to their trade 

 would be in no wise removed by the proposed introduction of 

 an export bounty. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series. A r o. 2344. Price 2^d.] 



Condition of Agriculture in Portugal. 



In a recent Foreign Office Report on the trade of Portugal, 

 which has been compiled by Mr. Harrison, Commercial 

 Attache to Her Majesty's Legation at Lisbon, it is stated that 

 Portugal is by nature an agricultural, as opposed to an 

 industrial, country, and that in spite of the want of encou- 

 ragement of their interests, more than 65 per cent, of the 

 population are agricultural, and more than 60 per cent, of 

 the exportation is derived from agriculture. It is claimed 

 that the soil and climate rival those of any country in the 

 same latitude, while the rural population is said to be hard- 

 working, and to possess great natural aptitude for agricul- 

 tural labour. 



The present condition of affairs in Portugal is, however, 

 represented as unfavourable to agricultural interests. The 

 strict system of protection involves high custom duties which 

 greatly increase the prices, and reduce the quality, of neces- 

 saries. For this reason,in spite of the nominal increase in wages, 

 the life of the agricultural labourer has become so hard 

 that large numbers of the rural population, who could be 

 usefully and remuneratively employed at home, leave the 

 country in the hope of bettering themselves. The country 

 districts thereby become depopulated, and advantages, 

 which are really as great or greater than those to be found 

 by the emigrants abroad, are wasted at home. 



The prosperity of agriculture in Portugal is also retarded 



