GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.—A survey of the natural regions of Germany and of their economic activities shows that in some respects the geographical endowment of the country is but moderate. The soil is often infertile, and although less than 10 per cent. of the total area is actually unproductive, much of the land is devoted to crops which prove but little remunerative. On the other hand, the mineral wealth is considerable. Coal and lignite, it is true, are imported, but chiefly to those districts which lie remote from the German coalfields, while the total exports exceed the imports. The deposits of iron ore in the Empire and in Luxemburg are the most extensive in Europe, and have gone far to make Germany the second iron and steel producing country in the world. The great supplies of salt, including potash salts, have not only stimu lated the growth of the chemical industry, but have played a most important part in the development of agriculture.
Certain other factors have, however, to be taken into account when considering the recent economic advance of Germany, and of these factors some are geographical while others are not. The position of the country in Central Europe, in touch with the chief industrial areas of the continent, has given it a high degree of nodality, which has been increased by the development of the European railway system, and more especially by the construction of the Alpine tunnels, which have provided for Germany an outlet upon the Mediterranean. Moreover, some of the chief rivers of the Continent flow through German territory, and, of these, two of the most important—the Rhine and the Elbe—connect the great industrial centres of the country with that part of the North Sea upon which converges a very large proportion of the world's commerce. But perhaps the most important factor in affecting the transition from an agricultural to a manufacturing regime in Germany has been the increase in population which has taken place since 1870. In that year, it has been calculated, the country with its forty millions of inhabitants reached the limit of density beyond which it could not, at that time, go without ceasing to be self-supporting. A further increase meant either the import of food-stuffs or the emigration of the surplus population. Without colonies of their own, handicapped to some extent in North America and elsewhere by ignorance of the prevailing language, and unwilling, it may be, to cut asunder the ties which bound them to the Fatherland, the latter course presented obvious difficulties to the German people. On the other hand, their possession of coal,
iron, timber, and other natural resources, rendered industrial development comparatively easy, though the existence of various manufactures in parts of the country, where these resources do not exist, shows that the movement was, in part, an artificial one. But to its success various circumstances have contributed.
Government help has not altogether been wanting. The control of the railways by the different States, and the gradual evolution of working agreements between them, have enabled a certain amount of indirect help to be given to the manufacturing interests of the Empire. Rates, for example, have been so adjusted as to favour the exportation of goods by German ports, while in certain of the more sterile parts of the country railways have been laid which private companies would find unprofitable to operate. Again, fiscal enactments have sometimes played an important role in the establishment of a new industry, as in the case of beet sugar, or in the maintenance of an old one, as in the case of agri culture. But much more pregnant of result has undoubtedly been the readiness with which the Prussian people have availed themselves of the results of scientific research. The utilisation of the minette ores of Lorraine, the extraction of sugar from beet, the use of Stassfurt salts in agriculture, and the manufacture of aniline dyes, are all processes involving the practical application of scientific discoveries. Nowhere, indeed, is scientific and technical education carried further than in Germany. In addition to numer ous universities, and the great technical college at Charlottenburg, there are various institutions at which specialised instruction may be obtained. For example, there are agricultural colleges at Hohenheim and Berlin, as well as a great number of agricultural and farming schools scattered over the country ; forest academies at Eberswalde, Aschaffenburg, and Karlsruhe ; and mining schools at Berlin, Freiberg, and Clausthal ; technical training in the manufacture of textiles is given at Crefeld, Barmen, Chemnitz, and elsewhere ; and there are schools for those engaged in the ceramic industries in the districts where such industries are located.