Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1027

 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.