SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA
G71
Agriculture.
In 1895 there were 16,180 separate larins in the Duchy, as follows : under 1 hectare, 8,280; 1-10 hectares, 5,309; 10-100 hectares, 2,547 ; over 100 hectares, 44. Their total area was 111,241 hectares. These farms sup- ported a population of 46,208, of whom 24,883 were actively engaged in agriculture. In 1896 the cultivated area and produce were as follows : —
Crop
Hectares
1,000 kilog.
25,907 14,832 11,946
t Crop
Hectares
8,567 14,722 11,324
1,000 kilog.
Rye
Wheat ... Barley
18,018
7,878 7,. 538
Potatoes . . .
Oats
Hay
78,100 23,511
46,755
In 1897 there were in the Duchy, 11,807 horses, 67,282 cattle, 10,754 sheep, and 58,603 swine.
There are 107 miles of railway.
British Co^isul-Gcneral. — Freiherr C. C. B. von Tauchnitz (Leipzig).
Reference.
Statistlsche Mittheiluiigeu aus dem Herzogthum Saclisen-Altcnburg, Annual, Altenhurg:
SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA.
(Herzogthum Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. )
Reigning Duke.
Alfred, born August 6, 1844, son of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria of Great Britain; succeeded his uncle, Ernest II., August 22, 1893; married January 23, 1874, to the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of the Emperor Alexander II. of Russia. Offspring^: — 1, Marie, born October 29, 1875; married January 11, 1893, to Crown-Prince Ferdinand of Rumania ; 2, Victoria, born November 25, 1876; married April 19, 1894, to Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse; 3, Alexandra, born September 1, 1878; married April 20, 1896, to Ernst, Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg ; 4^ Beatrice, born April 20, 1884.
The immediate ancestor of the reigning family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was Duke John Ernst, seventh son of Duke Ernst the Pious, who succeeded his brother Albrecht, Ernst's second son, in 1699, in the Duchy of Saxe- Coburg, to which he added Saalfeld. John Ernst's two sons ruled in com- mon, under the title Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld ; but their single successor Ernst Frederick I. (1764-1800) introduced the principle of primogeniture. On the extinction of the line of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg in 1825, Ernst I. received, in 1826, Gotha in exchange for Saalfeld, which wasassigned to Saxe-Meiningen, and assumed the title of Ernst I. of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The family is in possession of a large private fortune, accumulated cliiefly by Duke Ernst I,, to whom the Congress of Vienna made a present of the Princi- pality of Lichtenberg. This Principality he sold, September 22, 1834, to the King of Prussia, for a sum of two million thalers, and other advan- tages. The reigning Duke receives 300,000 marks out of the income of the Gotha domains, 100,503 marks is paid into the public exchei^uer, while the rest is divided between the Duke and the State. The Duke further receives one-half of the excess of revenue over expenditure from the Coburg domains.
Constitution and Finance.
The Staatsgrundgesetz, or fundamental law of the two Duchies, pro- claimed May 3, 1852, vests the legislative power in the Duke in con-
1 Prince Alfred, the only son of the reigning Duke, died February 6, 1899. The Duke of Connaught is now heir-apparent.
