One hundred years ago
The farmers and landlords of Central Europe are quite beside themselves with fury. The "agrarip" party in Ger- many declare formally that they will never pardon Count Caprivi — which means the Emperor — for his Free- trade Treaties, and in Austria they are mooting proposals such as one expects from Socialists. The Farmers' Congress which met in Vienna on December 17th, actually proposed that the State should take over all mortgages, that they should be "protected" against the competition of Hungary, and that the State should fix such a minimum price for corn as should allow rents to be paid easily. The mortgage idea would in the end make the State universal landlord, and the minimum price idea is really our own sliding-scale, which broke down on trial. The truth is, that all landed property in Europe is suffering heavily from low profits, and that landlords and farmers alike cannot reconcile the new prices with their old obligations. They must in the end do like other tradesmen in the same circumstances, go into liqui- dation, and live on little; but intermedi- ately they struggle furiously, and want to use their votes. They will fail in Ger- many, and probably in Austria, for the Crown is so much against them as to be ready to accept Universal Suffrage.
The Spectator 23 December 1893
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