In the other industries as well, the importance of Bohemia is equally paramount. She monopolises 93 % of the entire sugar industry and about 46 % of the breweries. Hops are grown only in the Bohemian lands, whence they are exported. The engineering industry also has its seat chiefly in Bohemia, as do the textile (cotton and wool), glass, paper and leather industries, stone-cutting and grinding, graphite quarrying, chemistry and electro-technology.
In consequence of this industrial activity, Bohemia returns the highest profits for railways, posts and telegraphs. Her network of railways is the thickest, and she alone, out of the whole of Austria, can boast of private railways run for the benefit of particular factories. This feature is especially characteristic of the north of Bohemia. The Bohemian postal system yields 52 % of the total profits.
In banking and exchange the Bohemian lands used to be dependent on Vienna, but they have been emancipated since 1895, and, during these 20 years, the capital of the Bohemian banks has increased sevenfold, having risen from 48 mill. to 336 mill. crowns. And it must be remembered that the chief source of the banking capital of Vienna is the trade with the Bohemian lands. The development of Bohemian trade has, during the last few years, been exceedingly rapid.
The Slovak territory in the north of Hungary is very different. It is mostly agricultural, as yet comparatively undeveloped, and as the country is very hilly and the methods of cultivation obsolete, it is much poorer than the other Bohemian lands. The southern part, being less hilly, is fertile enough, producing, indeed, very good wine; and as the hilly north has much natural wealth in the form of iron ore, great forests, etc., which is as yet unexploited, the country could be industrialised to great advantage. It could supply the other Bohemian lands with the commodities of which they are short, such as iron ore, copper and tin; and finally, the country is good for sheep and cattle raising. This territory is very similar to Silesia, the larger part of which is now industrial, and could be turned to the same use.
Nor must we forget the wealth of the compounds of uranium and radium, mined at Joachimsthal, nor the baths at Karlsbad, Franzensbad and Marienbad, Teplitz, Podébrady, Mšene, Luhačovice and Pistany. Bohemian territory is, in this respect, one of the richest countries in the world. In short, except for salt, mercury and naphtha, the Bohemian lands
167
