When compared to the richer Western European countries, let alone the fabulously well-endowed North American settlements, Germany was indeed land-poor. Compared to Britain, Germany had more land to devote to agriculture, but its rural population was disproportionately larger. Compared to France, the German agricultural population was smaller in relative terms, but France was far more favourably endowed with land. Though comparing itself in terms of per capita GDP to countries like Britain and the United States, in terms of land per farmer Germany had far more in common with backward ‘peasant
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