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Hungary. These Ugro-Russians, as they call themselves, have been very much oppressed by the Magyars; they number about half a million.[1]
48. (c) Economically and financially Bohemia is acknowledged to be the “pearl of Austria,” and she will in the future be as rich as she is now; she will, in fact, be richer, because she will not have to support the economically weaker provinces of Austria.[2]
Bohemia was, from the beginning of the union with Hungary and Austria, the political backbone of Austria; the Alpine countries were poor, Trieste and the sca were of little importance, Hungary had no economic significance at all. Bohemia exported grain and manufactured goods; it was only in the second half of the nineteenth century that Hungary became the granary of Austria and partly of Bohemia, which, until then, like the rest of Austria, imported the grain and flour she required from America.
At present the population of the Bohemian countries is, in round numbers, half agricultural, half industrial. In Bohemia proper 35 per cent. are employed in agriculture, the rest in industry, commerce and the so-called liberal occupations. In Moravia and Silesia 50 per cent. live on agriculture, in Slovakia a much higher percentage still.
In the years 1906–1914 the average production of grain was (in round figures), in Bohemia 5412 million cwt., in Moravia 24 million, in Silesia 4 million.
After making due allowance for grain used for sowing purposes and for grain wasted, this works out an average of over 810 lbs. a year per head in Bohemia; in Moravia the average is 890 lbs. per head. The Bohemian lands altogether give an average of 815 lbs. per head for a population of little less than 10 millions, while in the rest of Austria it is hardly 541 per head. It should be remarked that half of this grain can be used for milling, giving flour and foodstuffs of excellent quality, which, together with the yearly produce in potatoes, peas, lentils, vegetables and excellent fruits, is more than sufficient to feed the whole population. In 1914 the harvest was so good that it gave an average of 839 lbs. per head. It should be remembered that the cultivation in Bohemia has not reached the same stage of development as that of Denmark or Belgium; there are great possibilities ahead if the rate of development evinced during the last ten years is maintained.
During the years 1906–1910 Bohemia and Moravia contributed almost 46 per cent. of the total grain produced in Austria, 41 per cent. of the potatoes, 44 per cent. of the clover and fodder, and 93 per cent. of the beet sugar. The Austrian sugar industry is almost entirely confined to the Bohemian lands. The statistics of the production of fruit, vegetables, cereals, etc., are equally indicative of Bohemia’s importance; and this in spite of the fact that these lands represent only 26·4 per cent. of the soil of Austria and 3512 per cent. of her inhabitants. Cattle breeding in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia has recently been largely improved; the provision of milk and meat is more abundant than in other Austrian countries (excepting Vienna, which in many respects has the favoured position of the capital).
To the total amount of brown coal produced in Austria (2614 million tons) Bohemia alone contributes 83 per cent., and to the 15·8 million tons of black coal 86·66 per cent. These results place Bohemia among the richest States in the world, and along with England and the United States and Germany, for she produces about 2612 cwt. of black and almost 51 cwt. of brown coal for every one of her 10 million inhabitants.
- ↑ There is a party among the Hungarian and Galician Ukrainians who call themselves Carpatho-Russians; they also proposed to the Czecho-Slovak National Council the union with the Czecho-Slovak State.
- ↑ It should be noted that the finances of Austria rest upon Bohemia-Moravia-Silesia, Lower Austria with Vienna, Northern Styria, and, in recent years, on a part of Western Galicia.
