292
GREECE.
stremmas are said to be unfit for cultivation ; 18,599,240 stremmas consist of rock and mountain ; 5,419,060 stremmas consist of forest; 833,448 of marsh ; and 1,653,000 of rivers, roads, cities, and vil- lages. In all, therefore, there are 38,253,000 stremmas of un- cultivated land, leaving 7,435,900 stremmas of land in cultivation. The ground is chiefly in the hands of a few proprietors ; but many of the peasants hold small patches of land of their own. Others cultivate farms on the metayer system, the owner of the land providing the farm-house, agricultural implements, and seed ; the produce, after deducting the seed, is divided in certain propor- tions between the cultivator and the owner of the land. A great part of the ground is national property, and the cultivator of it pays to the Government as rent 15 per cent, of the produce. By Article 101 of the Constitution of 1864, provision is made for the disposal and distribution of the national lands.
Trade and Industry.
The commerce of Greece averages four and a half millions sterling per annum, the imports amounting to about two millions, and the exports to twomillions and a half. Nearly one-half of the imports come from, and three-fifths, in value, of the exports go to the United Kingdom. The principal other countries with which commercial intercourse is carried on are, in order of importance, France, Turkey, Austria, Italy, and Russia. But the value of the imports and exports interchanged with these States is comparatively unimportant.
The commercial intercourse of Greece with the United Kingdom is exhibited in the subjoined tabular statement, showing the value of the total exports from Greece to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures into Greece, in the five years 1865 to 1869 : —
Tears
Exports from Greece to Great Britain
Imports of British Home Produce into Greece
1865 1866 1867 1868 1869
£ 1,071,645 879,598 1,246,683 1,147.581 1,526,069
£
1,020,489 851,873 949.124 976,867 973.918
The staple article of exports from Greece to Great Britain is currants, the value of which, in the year 1869, amounted to 1,138,795/., of which 218,079/. from the Ionian Islands, and 920,716/. from the rest of the kingdom. At the head of the other
