. Modern and contemporary European history (1815-1921). workers. Now all parties in Germanyheartily favor such legislation and even advocate a wide ex-tension of the system. Economic Progress Germanys rise in the economic world has been as phe-nomenal as her rise in the political world. Even during themiddle of the nineteenth century, two generations after the 1 By invalidity is meant total or partial incapacity to work because of dis-ablement for any reason. An invalidity pension is given by the Governmentto the workingman after his twenty-six weeks of sickness benefit. 2 In 1915 the age limi
. Modern and contemporary European history (1815-1921). workers. Now all parties in Germanyheartily favor such legislation and even advocate a wide ex-tension of the system. Economic Progress Germanys rise in the economic world has been as phe-nomenal as her rise in the political world. Even during themiddle of the nineteenth century, two generations after the 1 By invalidity is meant total or partial incapacity to work because of dis-ablement for any reason. An invalidity pension is given by the Governmentto the workingman after his twenty-six weeks of sickness benefit. 2 In 1915 the age limit was lowered to sixty-five. 298 MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY EUROPE Industrial Revolution had taken place in England, Ger-Industrial many was still largely a peasant land, as onlynesskofaGer- tn^rty Per cent °f ner population then lived inmany towns of over two thousand. Few factories existed; hence there was practically no export of manufac-tured articles. It was a poor country, inhabited by a frugal,hardworking people devoted to agriculture and to the. handicrafts. At that time the Germans were said to be un-practical, inefficient, and lacking in business enterprise, anation of poets and thinkers whose empire was in theclouds. Hardly a country in Europe presented a less inviting fieldfor economic development than Germany. Her soil wasgenerally poor, her rivers shallow, her harbors few, and herdeposits of coal and iron were so inferior in quality that littlemining was In order to engage in manufacturing, 1 As late as i860 only twelve million tons of coal and half a million tons ofpig iron were produced in Germany. THE GERMAN EMPIRE 299 the raw materials had to be assembled from widely sep-arated districts, and means of communication were inade-quate;1 moreover, the long distance to the seaboard fromthe manufacturing regions was a serious handicap to over-seas trade. Shortly after 1870 a startling change took place. In anincredibly short period Germany was transformed from
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