Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/343

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. affairs, consular services, army and navy, etc.; and about 40 per cent. of the expenditure of either country goes to general Administrative expenses, including clerical service in all depart- ments, maintenance of schools and teachers, churches and clergy, police, gendarmerie, etc. The chief source of revenue is taxation, which furnishes 88 per cent. of all the income of Aus- tria, and 70 per cent. of the revenue of Hun- gary; and in both countries the indirect taxes, i.e. those falling heaviest on the consumers, especially the poorer classes, constitute the most important item of taxation, yielding more than 60 per cent. of the entire revenue in Austria and over 40 per cent. in Hungary. The direct taxes yield 28 per cent. of the revenue of Austria and 30 per cent. of Hungary, and the income tax goes to make up about one-fourth of the direct taxes. Finally, a more important source of revenue than in most other countries are the Government monopolies and undertakings, rail- ways, telegraphs, post-office, tobacco, forests, mines, lottery, etc., which furnish as much as 30 per cent. of all the revenue of Hungary and about 8 per cent. of that of Austria.

The public debt of Austria-Hungary is extremely large. Fully 40 per cent. of the total expenditure of the monarchy goes toward paying interest and a slight part of the principal of the debt. By the agreement of 1867, the separate debts of the two countries were consolidated into a common debt of the monarchy. In 1899 this common debt still amounted to more than $1,102,000,000. Since 1868 the new debts contracted by the two countries have been kept distinct, and interest paid out of the separate revenues of Austria and Hungary. While the common debt has been somewhat decreased, although very slowly, the separate debts have gone on increasing from year to year, until now they have grown to tremendous proportions, proving a great drain on the resources of the people. In 1887 the total indebtedness of the monarchy exceeded $2,114,000,000; in 1897 it had increased to $2,723,000,000. Of this great total $26,000,000 represented the floating debt of the monarchy, consisting mostly of paper money; $1,090,000,000 was the amount of the joint consolidated interest-bearing debt of the monarchy; $597,935,000 represented the special Austrian debt, and $1,006,000,000 the special Hungarian debt. It should be noted in conclusion that a great part of that debt has been incurred for the purchase or construction of profitable undertakings, such as railways, telegraphs, mines, etc.

. Military service is obligatory on all citizens in Austria and in Hungary. The military system is organized on identical lines in both halves of the monarchy, and the common army is under the head of the common ministry of war. Austria and Hungary have their own national guards (the Landwehr in one, the Honvédseg in the other) and the general levy (Landsturm, Nepfölkelés) of the nation. The common army and the special armies are reinforced by a supplementary reserve (Ersatzreserve, Póttartalék). The terms of service are, for the common army, 12 years, of which 3 years are spent in the line, 7 years in the reserve, and 2 years in the Landwehr; for the special armies, 12 years likewise, of which 2 or 3 years are passed in the line and 9 or 10 years in the Landsturm. All citizens between the ages of 19 and 42 who do not serve in the common army, the national guards, the supplementary reserve, or the navy, belong to the Landsturm, or general levy. Persons possessing certain educational qualifications are subject to only one year's active service in the military forces. The Austro-Hungarian navy is maintained chiefly for purposes of coast defense. See articles ;.

The metric system is in vogue throughout the monarchy. The monetary system is on the gold basis. A crown (Krone) — equal to one-half of the old gulden or florin — is worth 20.3 cents United States money. A crown has 100 Heller, the heller being equal to one-half kreuzer, the coin formerly in vogue.

. The growth of population during the last half of the Nineteenth Century was as follows:

Year Austria Hungary Total 1850 17,534,950 18,224,500 20,394,980 22,144,244 23,895,413 26,197,304 13,191,533 13,768,513 15.509,455 16,695,184 17,463,791 19,203,531 30,726.483 1857 31.993.013 1869 35,904.435 1880 37,839.428 1890 41.3.19,204 1900 45.400,835

(For figures of population and its density by crown-lands, see first table of this article.)

At the close of the Nineteenth Century there were but three cities in Austria-Hungary having a population of over 200,000: Vienna (1,674,957), Budapest (732,322), and Prague (201,589). The following are the most important towns of Cisleithania: Vienna, Prague, Lemberg, Gratz, Trieste, Brünn, Cracow, Pilsen, Czernowitz, Linz, Pola, Budweis, Laibach, Salzburg, Zara, Innsbruck, Troppau, Klagenfurt, and Olmütz. The principal towns of Transleithania are: Budapest, Szegedin, Maria-Theresiopel (Szábadka), Debreczin, Presburg, Hódmezö-Vásárhely, Agram, Kecskemét, Arad, Temesvár, Groszwardein, Klausenburg, Fünfkirchen, Fiume, and Kaschau.

Birth and Death Rates. Both show the same tendency to decrease that is so prevalent throughout the civilized world, the former due to increased uncertainty of occupation and greater willingness on the part of the population to check births, and the latter due to improved sanitation and higher standards of living. In 1898 the death-rate in Austria was 24.76 per thousand, as compared with 29.22 in 1888, the birth-rate in the same years being 35.97 and 37.62, thus leaving an excess of new-born over deceased equal to 11.20 per thousand in 1898, as against but 8.60 in 1888. In Hungary the death- rate per thousand was 33.4 in 1891, and 28.5 in 1897, while the birth-rate decreased from 42.6 in 1891, to 40.3 in 1897, the excess of births over deaths thus having increased from 9.2 in 1891 to 11.8 in 1897. In 1890 there were 19,264 blind people in Austria and 18,363 in Hungary — a rather high proportion for the latter country, considering its smaller share of the population of the monarchy. The respective numbers of deaf mutes in the two halves of the monarchy were 30,876 and 19,024; insane, 36,151 and 10,536.

. In the twenty-year period of 1878-1898 about 900,000 people emigrated from Austria-Hungary to North and