MANUFACTURES. The industrial development of Austria-Hungary has been advancing with rapid strides for the last few decades, and in many eases this has been clue to the material sup port received from the Government in direct sub ventions. reduced freight rates on State railways, and exemption from import duties on raw prod ucts and machinery used in time industries. The following are the l0 most important industries in the country, employing more than 100.000 persons each: (l ) The clothing industry, with nearly S00.000 wo•kers—less than one-fourths of whom are employed in Hungary, and the rest. in Austria. (2) Manufacture of foods and drinks, nearly 600,000 people, one-fifth of them in Hungary. (3) The textile industry, nearly 500,000 persons, less than one-fifteenth employed in Hungary. (4) Building trades, nearly 400, 00(1, less than one-fourth of whom are employed in Hungary. (5) Some 325,000 people arc en gaged in wood-working, less than a third of them in Hungary. (6) The iron and steel works of the monarchy furnish employment to 300,000 people, nearly 30 per cent. of whom are in Hungary. (7) The quarries and potteries of the monarchy keep some 150,000 people busy, less than one tenth of them in Hungary. (8-10) Filially, machine-building and tool and implement mak ing, and the paper and leather industries each give work to more than 100,000 people; less than one-third of these are employed in Hungary.
The mere enumeration of the principal indus tries of Austria-Hungary shows the overwhelm ing industrial importance of Austria in the monarchy. It is this industrial diversity of Austria and Hungary that makes the monarchy more or less self-sufficient, the two halves depend ing upon exchange with each other for their material well-being. The chief seats of indus try in Austria are Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, and Lower Austria. In Hungary, Budapest is the heart of industrial activity, 40 per cent. of the Hungarian factory population being em ployed there; yet the number of Budapest's manufacturing establishments constitutes but 10 per cent. of the total in Hungary, which shows that most of the large modern factories and mills of are located in its capital.
The most iuportant industries in the mon archy that are carried on on a large scale, and play a leading part in the commercial and financial life of the country, are the textile and iron and steel industries. The most ancient branches of the textile industry are the spin ning and weaving of wool and linen, for both of which the country produces abundant raw material. The maintenance of these industries has always been an object of special solicitude with the people of Austria, because it not only furnishes employment to the manufactur ers and their workmen, but also affords an out let to the wool and flax crops of the country. But although the wool and linen industries are still very flourishing, their relative importance is receding before the rapidly growing cotton industry. The raw cotton is imported from the United States and India, and is converted into finished products in the spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, and printine. establishments of the monarchy. The growth of the industry is hest shown by the increasing quantity of raw cotton consumed from year to year. In 1831 the imports of raw cotton amounted to 12,456, 000 pounds; in 1858 they rose to 87,523,000 pounds. Cotton was seriously threatening the very existence of the linen industry, when the breaking out of the Civil War in the United States, with the consequent cotton famine, gave the linen industry a chance to revive. After the war the cotton industry took a new lead, and the imports of cotton jumped to 132,739, 000 pounds in 187], 245,482,200 pounds in 1891, and 358,269.500 pounds in 1898. The silk in dustry is also making rapid strides, owing chief ly to the increased cultivation of the silk-worm in Hungary. Formerly the seat of silk manu facture was largely centred in Southern Tyrol and the neighboring region; now there arc large silk-spinning establishments in Szegsznrd, Panes ova, and Neusatz, in Hungary, in which country about 86,000 families were engaged in the pro duction of raw silk in 1894, as against only 100 families in 1879. All of the textile products enumerated constitute an important item of ex port from Austria-Hungary.