Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. 683 
which are published only decennially, afford precise information 
upon this point for no later year than 1882, the statistics for 
1892 being not yet available. Consular reports at various 
times have referred in general terms to the depression existing 
among the agriculturists of different parts of France, reductions 
of rent, and difficulty of obtaining payment of rent. Accounts 
of the state of agriculture in the French colony of Algeria, again, 
are far from satisfactory. 
Spain and Portugal. 
Almost every Consular report from Spain for years past has 
described depression in the agricultural districts of that country 
as very severe. Mr. Drage, in his report on Spain to the Labour 
Commission, refers to the gradual depopulation of many villages a3 
evidence of general depression, and says that in Andalusia “the 
condition of the agricultural classes is specially wretched, ’’owingto 
the exactions of local officials and money-lenders. The new tariff, 
framed in 1892, imposed extremely high duties on agricultural 
products ; but the fall in grain has exceeded the highest tariff 
in the world. Although farming is much better done in Portugal 
than in Spain, and the farmers in some parts of the country are 
comparatively prosperous, as times go, there was an agricultural 
crisis in the country some years back, which led the Government 
to pass a new law in 1889 requiring millers to use twice as 
much native as imported wheat. The duty on wheat is a very 
high one, and other farm products are protected; yet depression 
is refei’red to as a familiar fact in reports to the Foreign Office. 
Italy and Switzerland. 
Probably no country in the world has suffered more from 
agricultural depression than Italy, where the taxation which 
falls upon the land is crushing. An immense amount of evidence 
upon this subject is available, but cannot be even summarised 
in this article. Much of it is given in Mr. Drage’s report on 
Italy to the Labour Commission, one statement being that 
while the net agricultural income of the country is about 
1,000,000,000 lire, the Government land tax and the provincial 
and commercial surtaxes on land amount to 239,000,000 lire, 
and in addition thero are the income, cattle, and indirect taxes. 
In February last the duty on wheat was raised to 12s. 2 d. a 
quarter, and yet the price of the best wheat in March was only 
34s. 8 d., and by June it had fallen to 31s. 9 d., or less than it 
had been shortly before the advance of 40 per cent, in the duty. 
At a great agrarian congress held in Rome in April a resolution 
