Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/118

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104
BOHEMIA'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

in 1912 amounted to 237 and that of Austria-Hungary to England to 261 million kronen. The most important Austrian goods exported to England consisted of sugar. As we mentioned above, 93 per cent. of the Austrian sugar output is manufactured in the Czech countries. According to our statistics, two-thirds of the Austrian export and import trade are destined for the Czech countries, and sugar is exported exclusively from Bohemia. It was in reality the Czech countries, and not Vienna, or any other Austrian provinces, that were in economic relations with England.

This fact has not always been sufficiently realised, and the profit has been generally left to the Germans, who have always willingly played the part of intermediaries between the Czecho-Slovaks and the English in their commercial intercourse. If to this fact we add that the Austro-Hungarian export to the British Colonies amounted during 1909-1913 to an average annual total of 81,414,000 kronen, and the import to 261,866,000 kronen, the great importance of the economic Anglo-Czech relations will be acknowledged, as at least a half of this trade concerned exclusively the Czech countries. The importance of these figures will be more obvious when we remind ourselves that the imports of France from Austria-Hungary amounted only to 113,451,000 kronen and the