Economic and financial section > Agricultural crisis > Volume 1

— I9I —
126.88 pengd per cadastral arpent. Maintenance of buildings amounts to 4.61, purchases
of machinery and implements to 1.33, and upkeep of the latter to 5.73 pengo. The
high interest rates prevent farmers from sinking money in improvements, their resources
being only sufficient to keep their buildings and equipment in repair.
Causes of Depression.
The causes of the Hungarian agricultural depression are threefold:
1. General economic causes due to world market fluctuations: protective
tariffs, dear credit on world markets, influence of world harvests on prices.
2. National economic causes : taxation, legislation and administrative measures
for the improvement of production and marketing.
3. Causes connected with individual enterprises: income from farming varies
according to the crops and also according to the money spent and the method
employed.
Let us first take world economic causes.
Protective Duties.
Of the territory of pre-war Hungary, covering, with Croatia and Slavonia, 325,411
square kilometres, and without the latter 282,870 square kilometres, the Treaty of
Trianon took from us 232,578 square kilometres, reducing Hungary to 92,833 square
kilometres. It left us with only 28.5 per cent and transferred 71.5 per cent to the
Succession States.
It should also be borne in mind that, as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy formed
a Customs union, we marketed our farm produce duty free over the vast area of 676,000
square kilometres, with a population of 52.6 millions.
The following table shows our pre-war exports of agricultural produce:
Hungarian Exports in 1913.
Marketed
Exported
Viz:
within the Austro-Hungarian Customs Union
to other countries
Per cent
75-7
24-3
Germany
Italy . .
France .
England
Roumania
Serbia .
United States of America
Per cent
6.4
2.1
1.1
3-4
i-7
0.9
0.6
Other countries 7.3
Total exports in 1913
100