The great depression in English agriculture during the the last quarter of the nineteenth century is, as I emphasized in my former article published in this journal, a historical process of such complexity that it cannot be translated simply into agricultural crisis. But it does not follow from this that the phases of agricultural crisis must be denied entirely. As a matter of fact, it may be considered that the remarkable decline of prices in agricultural produce and the stagnation or the curtailment of agricultural production itself, both of which were clearly observable particulaly in the sections producing raw materials in the years of 1878-79 (in America, around '83) and early 'nineties, were, in many respects, the direct reflection of two general crises of 1878 and 1890-93, though it is difficult to find such correlation in '73-74. This means it was not until the time of the prolonged agricultural depression that agricultural crisis as a constituent element of general economic crisis revealed itself to be verified historically. On the other hand, the great depression in agriculture was not overcome by the moderate recovery of national economy from the crises till the improvement in the methods of agricultural production and the capitalistic change in the landownership were, somehow or other, obtained the desired effect. In a word, the reduction of the cost of production in agriculture by means of technical improvements and the rationalisation of farm management and the security of capital in agriculture, established by the statutes enacted with relation to tenant right, landlords' right of distress, and strict settlement were the most important remedies without which English agriculture would be unable to get rid of the great depression. In this article, the author, using such historical source materials as the Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the two Royal Commissions on Agriculture together with those of R.C. on the Depression of Trade and Industry and the Agricultural Returns, etc., attempts to clarify, in the first place, the correlation between the general economic crises and the phases of agricultural crises during the Great Depression; in the second place, the characteristics of such improvements as (i) the transition from arable farming to grazing, (ii) the adoption of new agricultural machinery, and (iii) the concentration in the holdings and the increase of the area occupied by capitalist farmers at the expense of that of owner-occupied land; and in the last place, the role of the land law reforms played in the course of getting rid of the great depression of agriculture and their socio-economic significance.

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The circuit (Kreis) of Lennep in the government district (Regierungsbezirk) of Dusseldorf was one of the industrial centers of the "Bergisches Land" which was in turn one of the most thickly populated and industrialized regions in Germany around the middle of the 19th century. Although the population of the Lennep Circuit was only a little over 70, 000 and covered an area of only 5. 5 square miles, some of the most important industries, namely the textile and metalworking industries, were concentrated within its small confines. The Lennep Circuit can be divided into three different industial areas as follows : 1) the communities of Remscheid and Liittringhausen (hardware indusry); 2) the communities of Wermelskirchen, Dabringhausen and Ronsdorf (ribbon and cotton weaving industry); 3) the communities of Lennep and Hiickeswagen (woolindustry). There was a big difference between the organization of the wool industry and that of the other types of industry. The wool industry was already organized into factories by the middle of the 19th century, whereas the remaining industries ware still organized for the most part into handicrafts. Moreover this situation remained essentially the same until the end of the 19th century. Thus the working class of the circuit was divided into two groups: on one hand, there was a large group of independent craftsmen (often called "Fabrikanten" according to local custom) with their journeymen and apprentices (constituting the middle class), and on the other hand, a small group of factory workers (making up the lower class). One of the purposes of this article is to throw light on the cause of this structuring into two distinct classes. The religious situation in the circuit in question constituted an exeption to the general situation in the Rhineland in that 85% of the population was Protestant and was scattered in all parts of the circuit. This fact made for a characteristically Protestant atmosphere. The Catholic minority, however, was concentrated in a relatively small number of communities, above all in Lennep and Huckeswagen in the very area where the wool industry was flourishing. For this reason there arises the question of whether there is some kind of correlation between the middle class consciousness of the large group of independent craftsmen and Protestant Ethics. Another conspicuous fact in regard to this area is that there was an continuous emigration to the New World, esp. to North America. These emigrants were not from the proletariat but from the middle class. It seems legitimate to say that, whenever the craftsmen were unable to earn a decent livelihood, they preferred to leave the Lennep Circuit in order to preserve their economic and social independence rather than remain and consequently be degraded to the lower class. This meant, of course, that it became difficult for the entrepreneurs to find workers enough for the new factory system. If it is true that Protestant Ethics encouraged a spirit of independence, then it must have been difficult in a heavily Protestant area to make the change from the system of independent trades to the factory system. Thus, only in areas with a large Catholic population did the introduction of the factory system meet with less resistance. We may therefore conclude that Protestantism became at this stage rather a hinderance for the development of industrial productivity. If we further call to mind that it was the Huguenots who in the 16th century laid the foundation for the industrial development of the barren "Bergisches Land", we see that there was a historical interaction between the two confessions in the economic sphere. Besides this, it must not be forgotten that the emigration of a part of the middle class to North America had the positive effect of providing a new market outlet for the Lennep industry. The fierce competition comming from the other industrial

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