THE GERMAN PEASANTRY.
AVERY interesting Report on the condition of the peasantry of the German Empire has been written by the Vicomte llorric de Beaucaire, Secretary of the French Embassy at Berlin. It is the first of a series of Reports which the French Minister of Foreign Affairs has directed the representatives of France in foreign countries to prepare, at the instance of the- Minister of Agriculture, who is anxious to gain information as to the best means of ameliorating the condition of the French rural labourers, so as to render them contented with country life, and thus to check that excessive migration to the towns which is at least as great a trouble in France as it is in our own country. An examination of the population statistics shows that there had been in Germany, at any rate up to 1880, a considerable drain from the rural districts to the towns. Putting all places of more than 2,000 inhabitants in the latter category, the Vicomte found that from 1871 to 1880, the rural population had been nearly stationary, the numbers being 26,219,352 in the former year, and 26,513,531 in the latter ; while in the urban districts there was a large increase, from 14,790,798 to 18,750,530. In proportion to the total population, the number of rural inhabitants was 63.93 per cent. in 1871, and 58.61 per cent. in 1880 ; whereas the urban population had risen from 36.1 per cent. in 1871, to 41.4 per cent. in 1880. Since 1880, there is reason to believe that the migration has been checked, though not stopped ; but apparently no later exact statistics than those of that year were available to the writer of the Report. As in France and in England, the migration has been chiefly to the . large towns of Germany, those containing 100,000 inhabitants or more, in which the per-centage of people to the total popu- lation of the Empire rose from 4.8 in 1871, to 7.24 in 1880. Attention is also called to the emigration to foreign countries and German Colonies, which rose from 75,912 in 1871, to 210,547 in 1881. The average annual increase of population in Germany is 493,360, nearly half of which number left the
country in 1881, in spite of all possible indirect impediments placed in the way of emigration by the Government.
The next division of the inquiry was as to the consequences of the migration of rural labourers to the towns, and particu- larly as to the effect upon agricultural wages. This inquiry was somewhat complicated by the fact that in many parts of Germany farm wages are paid partly or wholly in kind. There appears to have been a general rise in wages during the past twenty years, though recently there has been a drop in some parts of the country. From ls. 6d. to 2s. per day without food, and about half as much with food, appear to be the most common rates of wages for men, women getting from one-half to two-thirds of the men's wages. Men employed by the year, living with their masters, commonly get from £10 to £15 a year. In some parts of the country there are lower, and in other parts higher, wages than these, both by the day and by the year. As little as 10d. to 1s. per day is paid in some districts, but generally with food and beer, or beer only. Where the beetroot is cultivated, wages are generally higher than any mentioned above, as much as 2s. 6d. a day, doubled in harvest, or £25 a year in the house, being paid. It is to be borne in mind that many of the day-labourers have little plots of land of their own, while in other cases it is the custom of their employers to let small plots to them at low rents. Labour appears to be plentiful in nearly all parts of the German Empire.
In France, through the migration of agricultural workmen to the towns, labour in many districts is scarce, and the farmers complain that wages have risen beyond what they can afford to pay. The question, then, was, why the same results had not followed the like migration in Germany. In answer- ing this, the Vicomte de Beaucaire first points out that, while the rural population in France decreased from 24,928,392 in 1876, to 24,575,506 in 1881, that of Cermany, as already shown, had not ceased to increase slightly, in spite of the drain tpon it. It is true that the density of population in the rural districts of Germany is only slightly greater than it is in France, being 49.07 per square kilometre in the former, to 46.48 in the latter ; but a density ample for one country is not necessarily so for another country, and there must be a difference in the effects upon wages of a growing population, with its increasing need of employment, and a diminishing population, with its decreasing demand for work. In addition, the Vicomte gives some special reasons to account for the general abundance of labour in Germany. He points out that the system of inherit- ance by the eldest or youngest son, prevailing throughout the greater part of Germany, throws a greater number of young men upon the labour market than the system of equal division of landed property current in France, only partially operative though it be. He also lays some stress upon the fact that the German peasant-proprietors are usually heavily indebted to the village usurers, a class of parasites unknown in France, and that they are for that reason obliged to earn all that they can by labour for other persons, in order to meet their liabilities. Still, the fact that, somehow, the temptation to leave the rural districts is less powerful in Germany than it is in France, remains to be accounted for, and the explanations given to account for this difference form the most interesting portion of the Report before us.
Among the causes of the comparative contentment of the German peasantry, according to the Vicomte de Beaucaire, greater simplicity of manners and a lower standard of living than prevail in France are to be considered. Attention is also called to the happy relations existing between the great pro- prietors and the peasantry. These relations appear to be of a patriarchal character. The peasants regard the great land- owners with reverence and without envy, and there never has been any bad feeling between the two classes. It is true that there has been a revolution of the German land system, and that those who were once serfs have been set free ; but that revolution was effected for, and not by, the peasantry, who were never roused, as the people of France were, to rise against and overthrow those who had power over them. Thus, there has not been anything to embitter the patriarchal relations, which date from a remote period, and while the peasant still looks up to the great proprietor, the latter, in his turn, still discharges to a great extent the functions of a petty providence which were expected of his ancestor who was the lord of many serfs. The wealthy proprietors support hospitals and schools, pension off in old age the men who have worked for them in the prime of life, and exercise charity and kindness among the people on their estates, all known to them personally. The smaller landowners often approach the peasants in their mode of living, speak their language, hunt with them, dress but little better, and generally treat them pretty well as equals. Poli- ticians, too, though not always wisely, have done their utmost to give contentment to the German peasantry, the peasant having for some years been as great a favourite among politicians
in Germany as he is at the present time in England. Various schemes for his benefit have been carried out,—some with advantage and others without good effect. The Vicomte writes :—" To-day, in the whole Empire, a great movement of opinion, a little artificial, perhaps, at the outset, but none the less genuine, exists in favour of the agricultural classes. Everything falls in with this current of thought,— the laws proposed in the Chambers, measures taken by the Executive, enterprises due to private initiative." Numerous associations have been created among the peasants to protect their interests and to promote the advancement of agriculture. Gifts of lands by individuals have been common, and the use of plots of land in return for services rendered has been fre- quently granted. These advantages. and the creation of agri- cultural labour colonies, in the opinion of the Vicomte de Beaucaire, have done more to retain agricultural labourers in the rural districts than all the efforts made by the State. One great project of the Prussian Government, of which marvels were expected, is described as a failure. When M. Camp- hausen was Minister of Finances, he caused to be detached from the Crown lands in Pomerania parcels of land small enough to be easily purchased by the peasants ; but either because the price was set too high, or because funds were lacking among the inhabitants of the district, the scheme did not answer its purpose. In East Prussia, too, similar offers of land were made, with no other result than to attract from Russian Poland a number of purchasers, whose arrival caused great dissatisfaction among the German inhabitants. These failures discouraged similar schemes that would have been carried out elsewhere ; but it is believed by many of their advocates that they would have succeeded if the purchase- money had been advanced by the State. Other attempts to give contentment to the peasantry are duties on foreign corn, lately increased, duties on most other foreign agricultural products, and the reduction of taxes specially burdensome to inhabitants of the rural districts. The shifting of the burden of taxation to a considerable extent from real to personal property is strongly advocated, and one of the projects having this object in view, that of taxing the operations of the Pourse, has lately been agreed to by Parliament. Another measure adopted for the advantage of the cultivators is the creation of the Superior Council of Agriculture (Landwirthschaftsrath). Recently, too, much attention has been given by the Government to the proposed formation of agricultural credit banks generally throughout the Empire. For many years banks, some guaranteed by the State and some private, which advance money to landed proprietors, large and small, on mortgage or other satisfactory security,.have existed in all the provinces of Germany ; but for some reasons they have not been used very generally by the peasant- proprietors, who still go to the village usurers for advances, which they can obtain only at ruinous interest. At present the institutions of the kind which have proved most suitable to the requirements of the small cultivators are the mutual loan banks, first established by M. Raiffeisen, and already existing in considerable numbers in several provinces of Germany. On account of the smallness of the capital possessed by these institutions, however, it is feared that they would not be able to withstand a serious financial crisis ; and for that reason the Government has but slightly encouraged them. As in other countries where peasant-proprietorship prevails, the excessive division of land has occasioned much distress in Germany. In the districts of Troves and Coblentz 4,972,420 morgen are divided into 8,065,369 parcels, or an average of about half an acre to each little holding. Several parcels axe sometimes owned by one proprietor ; but the inconvenience of the separated plots is very great. Since the beginning of the present century various laws have been framed to check such excessive subdivision as this, the most recent being an Act passed in 1885. Some good has been done by this legislation, especially by that promoting exchanges of plots among proprietors who own scattered portions of land, and the law of primogeniture, where it exists, has also checked excessive sub- division ; but the evil has increased in spite of all checks. Where the law of compulsory division exists, it is now proposed to extend the right of bequest by the father of a family which is in force in a portion of the Empire. In summing up his interesting article, the Vicomte de Beaucaire says that although
the migration of rural labourers to the towns has been com- plained of in Germany, as in France, it has not produced such injurious results in the former country as in the latter, and it is, moreover, slackening at the present time. The means taken, and those likely to be adopted, for rendering the lot of the German peasantry more satisfactory than it has been are, he thinks, likely to effect their purpose, and he sees no reason to fear, at any rate in the near future, any such depopulation of the rural districts as would threaten the prosperity of agriculture.
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