The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 2/Economic Strength of the Bohemian Lands (1)

by Vojta Beneš

Economic Strength of the Bohemian Lands.

By Vojta Beneš.

 

The Bohemian nation has always held the right of self-determination to be the inalienable right of every adult people. In the early years of the modern period of Bohemian political life F. L. Rieger, then the leader of the nation, proclaimed: “As our foremost watchword we declare to be the right of each race to determine its allegiance.” Thomas G. Masaryk, the leader of the present revolution against Austria-Hungary, gave expression to the same idea in his great work “The Bohemian Problem” in 1889: “We are not fully our own, until we shall rule ourselves and be our own masters.”

To emancipate itself from Austria has been the goal of our nation for many years, but latterly it proclaimed clearly that it demanded full national independence. To this end was tending all its political and cultural development, and for the sake of this consummation of its hopes the Czech nation paid careful attention to its economic development. The second half of the nineteenth century was a period in which the Bohemian nation slowly gathered strength and riches after the exhausted condition into which it was cast by the blindly selfish policy of its Hapsburg rulers. Karel Havlíček and František Palacký, the two greatest men of the days of 1848, emphasized over and over again the necessity of economic development and strengthening. Two generations have gone by since then, and the Czech nation may justly take pride in the success it has achieved in this all-important field. When the Czechoslovak people make the claim that without them there can be no Austria, they do not exaggerate.

If it were not for its control of the riches of the Bohemian lands, Austria-Hungary would play a rôle in the world war far more contemptible than even its actual sorry performance. While the incorporation of the Czechoslovak conscripts did not increase the effectiveness of the Austrian armies, the crops of Bohemia fed the armies of both Austria and Germany, the mines of Bohemia gave forth most of the Austrian iron ore, Bohemian steel mills produced the all-important steel, Bohemian gun factories furnished the famous Austrian howitzers, cattle of Bohemia and Moravia was the principal source of meat for the army, and the textiles of Bohemia kept the Austro-Hungarian soldiers warm. Take away the Czechoslovak lands from the Dual Monarchy, and how much will be left? What help could such crippled Austria give to Germany in any future attack on the liberties of the world? Creation of a Bohemian republic will be the greatest blow struck at German plans of conquest.

After these general observations let me give a few figures regarding the agriculture, industry and commerce of the Bohemian lands. And first agriculture.

Whereas Norway has in fields only 0.7% of its area, Russia 15%, Austria 35.5%, and Hungary 41.4%, the lands of the ancient Bohemian crown, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, devote to field crops 51.6% of their area. Bohemia alone with its 5,194,809 hectares, has 50.47% of it in fields, 29.01% in forests, 17.14 in meadows, gardens and ponds, and only 3.38% of the total area is unproductive. That is the best evidence of great agricultural riches of Bohemia. The principal crops are grain crops. Rye was sown on 18.5% of the total area, and the average harvest amounts of 9,500,000 quintals of one hundred kilograms each. (This standard metrical measure is equivalent to somewhat less than four bushels or 220.46 pounds). The area sown to oats was 19.25% of the total area, and the average crop is 8,400,000 quintals; barley gets about 16% of the area with a crop of 6,200,000 quintals, while wheat fields comprise 8.5% of the area and give an average crop of 4,100,000 quintals. This is a total of grain crops for Bohemia alone of more than 28,000,000 quintals of grain crops. The productivity of its soil will be best appreciated by the following comparison. The average yield to a hectare in the United States was in 1910 about 9.2 quintals, in Austria it was 13.2 quintals, and in Bohemia 18.2 quintals. The figure for Austria includes Bohemian lands; without them the yield of the other Austrian provinces would be only 9.68 quintals. What an eloquent figure! With the Bohemian lands the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy has sufficient grain for its own consumption, with a considerable amount left for export. Without the Bohemian lands Austria would have to buy half of its grain in foreign lands.

What is true of grain crops as a whole, is particularly true of wheat, the staff of life. The total wheat harvest in Austria, including the lands of the Bohemian crown, was in round numbers 7,200,000 quintals in 1912. Bohemia alone furnished 4,425,000 quintals. With less than a fourth of the population it furnished over three-fifths of this most important crop.

Let us take commercial crops. The total yield of hops in Austria-Hungary was 195,000 quintals; of that amount 145,000 quintals of the best quality hops was grown in Bohemia. It may be interesting to add that the United States raised a yearly average of 200,000 quintals of hops. Or let us take the highly valuable sugar beet crop. Of sugar exported from Austria 93% was produced in Bohemia.

The area of Austria without Hungary is 30,000,793 hectares; of that the Bohemian lands have only 7,650,086 hectares, that is to say 25.49%. But taking together all the crops raised, the Bohemian lands furnish 40.99%, instead of 25.49%, of the total value of agricultural products. The greater part of the balance was produced in the agricultural province of Galicia. Austrian lands proper, that is to say that part of the monarchy which is largely German, would make a very miserable showing indeed in this matter of agricultural prosperity.

Other products of the farm show a much higher yield in Bohemia than in the rest of Austria. Bohemia raises 1,301,626 quintals of cabbage, 60,000 quintals of flax fiber, 208,577 quintals of peas, 32,475,385 quintals of potatoes, etc. Bohemian fruit has been famous all over Europe ever since the 18th century; it is exported in enormous quantities into Germany, and in the present war especially Bohemia has been virtually deprived of its entire fruit crop for the benefit of Germany. Both the soil and the climate of Bohemia are unusually favorable to the culture of fruit trees of all species grown in the temperate climes. In 1910 14,686,223 fruit trees gave a crop of 2,744,820 quintals of excellent fruit. As early as the 16th century a chronicler says: “In the Bohemian lands there is much fruit and fine wine and other products of the soil, so that the Bohemian lands are known as the granary of Germania.”

In cattle raising, as well as in field and fruit culture, the Bohemian lands take the first place among the provinces of Austria, although cattle raising is the principal industry of the Alpine (German) provinces. The last census gives the number of horses in Austria as 1,752,848; of that the Bohemian lands had 463,167 or just about their rightful proportion. In sheep raising the lands of the Bohemian crown fall slightly below the quota which they should have for their area. Of 3,684,879 sheep in Austria they had 823,478, falling short by about one hundred thousand of their percentage. But then most of the sheep are raised on the poor land of southern Austria; Bohemian soil is too valuable for this industry. There were in Austria in 1910 6,423,080 pigs, and of that number the Bohemian lands had 1,790,020, about two hundred thousand more than their proportion. Still better showing is made by Bohemia in that most important branch of agriculture, cattle raising. Whereas the total of cattle for all Austria was 9,160,009 head the Czech lands had 3,188,291 head of the finest breeds, almost a million over the number which they should have in proportion to their area. In Denmark, the model cattle-raising country, there are 46 head of cattle to a square kilometer; Austria without the Bohemian lands has 27, and the Bohemian lands have 41.7, a remarkably good showing, when it is remembered that Denmark raises little grain, while Bohemia is both a grain growing and cattle raising country.

Without the agricultural riches of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia the Austrian monarchy would cease to be a Great Power, and without the food raised in Bohemia and confiscated by Austrian authorities Germany would have been compelled by hunger long ago to capitulate.