The iron and steel industry of Austria-Ihm gary is abreast of the times in its modern methods of manufacture. The production of pig, cast, and wrought iron, Bessemer steel, iron bars. etc., although large, is barely sufficient to cover the home demand on the part of the manu facturers of steel rails, iron plate, steel wire, etc.. besides the numerous comparatively smaller manufactures of all kinds of metallic ware. In addition there is the very important ma chine - building industry, which includes the manufacture of locomotives, argicultural ma chinery, and all kinds of machinery used in modern manufacturing establishments. How in adequate most of these products are to meet the domestic demand, in spite of their great in crease in the course of the last decade, is to be seen from the following figures, which show that, with a few exceptions, the imports of these products are greater than the exports: The milling industry is still carried on to a considerable extent by small establishments, in which the motive power is wind or water, but there are now thousands of steam mills, most of them in Hungary. Sonic of them, as those in Budapest, are on a large scale.
In 1890 there were 106,616 distilleries, the great mass being diminutive stills, of which 27,055 were in Austria and 79,56] in Hungary. In 1S98, out of 30.637 distilleries in Austria, only 600 used any kind of machinery, and a simi lar proportion held in Hungary. But of the 25,434,000 gallons produced by the 79,010 distil leries of Hungary in ISM 24,884.000 gallons, or 97.8 per cent. of the total product, were turned out by 501 distilleries, or by about one-half of I per cent. of all the distilleries. The number of breweries is on the decrease, because the small breweries are crowded out of existence by their new large rivals. In 1865 there were 3143 brew eries; in 1880 there were 2217; in 1890, 1859 (1761 in Austria and 98 in Hungary) ; in 1 89S the number declined further to 1614. The annual output of the Austro-Hungarian breweries fluc tuated between 317,000,000 and 370,000,000 gal lons. and is behind only that of Germany and Great Britain in all Europe.
The beet-sugar industry is one of considerable importance in Austria, as well as in Hungary, and is fostered by the Government by a very liberal bounty system. In 1865 there were 147 refineries in the monarchy; the number grew to 215 (198 in Austria and 17 in Hungary) in 1890, and 234 (214 in Austria and 20 in Hun gary) in 1898, and the annual output increased from 845.000 tons of sugar in 1S90 to nearly
935,000 tons in 1898, which not only covers the entire domestic demand, but also furnishes a considerable surplus for export. The sugar in dustry gives employment to from 85,000 to 90,000 people, of which about one-sixth are em ployed in Hungary.
The glass industry is especially developed in Bohemia, whose products enjoy great fame and constitute a very important article of export from Austria-Hungary. The pottery products are also of importance, and include the most artistic and expensive porcelain and china ware. The chemical industry thrives especially in Bo hemia, Silesia. Lower Austria, and Hungary, and its most important products are potash, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, pharmaceuti cal goods, and dyestuffs and explosives. The manufacture of paper, carried on extensively, is rapidly growing throughout the monarchy, and furnishes large quantities for export, giving em ployment to some 25,000 people. The manufac ture of friction matches is carried on extensively in Austria.
The leather industry sprang up at an early date, as a natural outgrowth of the country's enormous stock-raising, and has developed to such an extent as to require the importation of considerable quantities of bides from abroad; and yet it is unable to supply the domestic de mand for leather, which also has to be imported in great quantities.
The manufacture of tobacco has constituted a Government monopoly since 1670. It is car ried on in 43 factories, of which 28 are in Aus tria and 15 in Hungary, giving employment to upward of 50,0110 working people, more than 90 per cent. of whom are women. The annual out put of the Government factories aggregates about 1,600.000,000 cigars, 2,500,000,000 cigarettes, 88, 000,000 pounds of tobacco, and 3,750,000 pounds of snuff, yielding a revenue of about $20,000,000 to the Austrian Government and nearly $12,000, 000 to the Hungarian Government. The consump tion of tobacco in the monarchy (3.3 pounds) per capita is behind that of Great Britain, the Neth erlands, Belgium, and Switzerland, and is about the same as in Germany.