ABSTRACT
In 1815 Germany was an agricultural society. The population of the German states, excluding that part of Austria which belonged to the German Confederation, amounted to approximately 23 million, of whom 10.5 million lived in Prussia. The feudal order on the land was the corner-stone of Prussian society in the eighteenth century. For this reason it was fiercely defended by those who profited from the system, who feared the consequences of dramatic change or who argued that the preservation of traditional society was the only alternative to a bloody revolution on the French model. Throughout most of Germany the old three-field system with summer crops, winter crops and fallow was still used. Yet with primitive farming methods, the shortage of cattle, and consequently of natural fertiliser, and inadequate supplies of winter feed, usually more than one-third of the land lay fallow.
