Chapter CXVIII: Section CCLVI: Immigration

B. Calling for immigrants. This is a means all the more in favor, inasmuch as it provides the country not only with new-born children, but with mature men, who frequently, when they come from thickly peopled and highly civilized countries, promote the industries of the country of their adoption, and become the teachers of a higher civilization. I need only mention the inhabitants of the Low Countries, who in the twelfth century settled as agriculturists in Northern Germany,[256-1] and in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries in England, as artisans; the German miners and inhabitants of cities, who, during the middle ages, colonized Hungary, Transylvania[256-2] and Poland,[256-3] and the French Huguenots, who fled to the Independent Protestant countries. Nearly all the remarkable Russian princes since Ivan III. have endeavored in this way to induce Germans to settle in Russia, and, for the same reason, Peter the Great refused to give up his Swedish prisoners of war.[256-4] The great Prussian rulers have cultivated the policy of immigration on an extensive scale, and thus maintained the original character of their parent provinces as the colonial land of the German people.[256-5] [256-6]

Such immigrants have been generally accorded a release from taxation and from military duty for a number of years; a proper measure since the state thereby only surrendered an advantage temporarily which it otherwise would not have possessed at all. Where the land of the state receiving the immigrants was still almost valueless, it has frequently been made over in parcels to well-to-do colonists without consideration.[256-7] Assistance exceeding these limits is a very questionable boon. It should not be forgotten that the influx of men who bring no capital whatever with them, and who are not good workmen, is of no advantage. Nor are they always the best elements of a people who emigrate. They are very frequently men who, through their own fault, did not prosper at home, and who come to the new country, with all their old faults.[256-8] This is, of course not true of those who emigrate from their attachment to some great principle; for instance, it is not true of those who emigrate in search of freedom of conscience. These may become, provided they are in harmony with their new environment, a support and ornament to their adopted country.[256-9] But there is always danger that they may not be able to adapt themselves to their new economic relations, and that thus they may in consequence succumb to the pressure of circumstances.[256-10]

Oriental despotisms have frequently endeavored to assure themselves the possession of newly conquered countries by transporting its most vigorous inhabitants in whole masses to a distant part of their old empire. Thus, the Jews were carried into Assyria and Babylon; the Eretrians into Persia; the inhabitants of Caffa by Mohammed II.; the Armenians by Abbas the Great. The Russians, too, undertook a similar transportation of people under the Ivans.[256-11]

C. The prohibition of emigration, which, in the case of serfs, vassals and state-villeins, it seems natural enough, was very usual in periods of absolute monarchical power. Thus, for instance, Frederick William I. forbade the emigration of Prussian peasants under penalty of death. Whoever captured an emigrant received a reward of two hundred thalers.[256-12] The public opinion of modern times is very decidedly opposed to this compulsion, which would make the state a prison.[256-13] "A really excessive population would still find an exit to escape, namely, through the gates of death." (_J. B. Say._) The statesman, on the other hand, who opposes the withdrawal of political or ecclesiastical malcontents should take care, lest he act like the physician who prevents the discharge of diseased matter from the sick body, and causes it to take its seat in some vital organ.[256-14] Hence, even where emigration is considered detrimental to the country, no governmental condition should be attached to it, except that the person desiring to emigrate should give timely notice of his intention, and receive his passport only after it has been shown that he has discharged all his military duties, paid his taxes and his debts.[256-15] [256-16]

The severe penalties imposed in Athens on emigration, after the defeat at Chæronea, when general discouragement threatened the state with total dissolution, belong to an entirely different mode of thought.[256-17]

[Footnote 256-1: _v. Wersebe_, Ueber die Niederlandischen
Kolonien in Deutschland, II, 1826.]

[Footnote 256-2: The immigration of the so-called Saxons
into Transylvania began between 1141 and 1161, in
consequence of the great inundations in the Netherlands.
Compare _Schlözer_, Kritische Sammlungen zur Gesch. der
Deutschen in Siebenb., 1795.]

[Footnote 256-3: In Poland, a multitude of German colonists
established themselves during the thirteenth century on the
domains of the crown and of the church. As a rule, they
obtained the land in consideration of moderate services and
rents, which, however, did not begin to run until after
eight years, nor until after thirty for uncleared land. In
addition to this, they were governed by the German law, and
their communal authorities were for the most part German.
(_Roepell_, Gesch. von Polen, I, 572 ff.)]

[Footnote 256-4: Later, the ambassador of Peter the Great
endeavored to attract into Russia the Swedes, whom the
Russian invasion had prevented from continuing the operation
of their mines, saw mills, etc. (_Schlosser_, Gesch. des 18
Jahrhund., I, 205.) Catherine's colonization, especially on
the Volga and in. Southern Russia, 1765 and 1783. About
1830, the number of the colonists was estimated at 130,000,
mostly Germans.]

[Footnote 256-5: It is estimated that Frederick William I.
spent 5,000,000 thalers in establishing colonists. Up to
1728, 20,000 new families were received into Prussia alone.
_Stenzel_, Preuss. Gesch. III, 412 ff. Frederick the Great
endeavored above all to retain in the country the strangers
who came there periodically. Thus, the harvesters of
Vogtland, in the neighborhood of Magdeburg, and the Vogtland
masons in the suburbs of the capital (1752). Compare _v.
Lamotte_ Abhandlungen, 1793, 160 ff. He is said to have
settled 42,600 families, mostly foreigners, in 539 villas
and hamlets. Besides, the population of Prussia, between
1823 and 1840, increased by 751,749 immigrants, without any
positive favors shown them (_Hoffmann_, Kleine Schriften, 5
ff.), and the greater part of these were not very poor.]

[Footnote 256-6: In antiquity, nothing so much contributed
to the rise of Athens and Rome as their reception of noble
refugees during its earlier periods.]

[Footnote 256-7: In Russia, the Emperor Alexander, in 1803,
promised the colonists a full release from taxation during
ten years, a reduction of taxation for ten more, and freedom
from civil and military service for all time; besides 60
_dessatines_ of land per family gratis, an advance of 300
rubles for housebuilding, etc. and money to enable them to
maintain themselves until their first harvest. The provision
relating to Poland (1833) was much less favorable:
importation of movable property free of duty, freedom from
military duty and from taxation for six years, and perpetual
quit rents (_Erbzinsgüter_) to agriculturists who owned a
certain amount of capital. Brazil promised immigrants, in
1820, land and ten years' freedom from taxation. Compare
_Jahn_, Beiträge, z. Einwanderung und Kolonisation in Br.
(1874), 37 ff. Hungary, in 1723, accorded settlers freedom
from taxation for six years and artisans for fifteen years.
(_Mailath_, Oesterreichische Gesch., IV, 525.) The ordinance
of 1858 affords too little security for non-Catholics and is
not adapted to farmers, but only to purchasers.]

[Footnote 256-8: Many of Frederick the Great's colonists
turned out very badly. They were attracted only by the
premiums offered, and they became dissolute after they had
consumed them. Many of them thought that they were to be of
use only by giving children to the state (_Meissner_, Leben
des Herrn v. Brenkenhof, 1782), and that the land donated
them was to be cultivated by others at the expense of the
state! _Dohm_ mentions villages of colonists which had to a
great extent changed hands four times in 20 years. Whether
the king would not have better attained his object had he
employed the younger sons of Prussian peasants as colonists,
_quære_. (_Dohm_, Denkwürdigkeiten, IV, 390 ff.) Even
_Süssmilch_ says: "A native subject is, in most cases and
for most purposes, better than two colonists." (Göttl.
Ordnung, I, 14, 275.) Compare the work: Wie dem Bauernstande
Freiheit und Eigenthum verschafft werden könne, 1769, 16.
Every family of colonists in South and new East Prussia is
said to have cost the state 1,500 thalers. (_Weber_,
Lehrbuch der polit. Oekonomie, 1806, II, 172); but according
to _Büsching_ (Beiträge z. Regierungsgeschichte Friedrichs,
II, 239), only 400 thalers. _J. Möser_ is strongly opposed
to the encouragement of immigration by direct appeals to it.
(P. Ph., I, 60.) According to _Bülau_,
Staatswirthschaftslehre, 24, only those immigrants are
welcome who are attracted to the country by the whole
character of its national institutions and circumstances. It
is a different matter when, for instance, the government in
New South Wales permits the colonists, by the payment of
very moderate contributions, to have their workmen, friends
and relations come after them from England in ships owned by
the government. Between 1832 and 1858, £1,700,000 were paid
out for such transportation. (Novara-Reise, III, 53.)]

[Footnote 256-9: Dutch Remonstrants since 1619 in Schleswig;
Huguenots established since 1685, in Prussia, to the number
of about 11,000; Waldenses in Prussia since 1686; natives of
Salzburg and of the Palatinate in Prussia. For a state which
is the representative of a religious or political principle,
it may be a matter of honor, and then certainly useful, to
afford an asylum to persons, adherents of that principle.]

[Footnote 256-10: On the German colonists whom Olavides
settled in Spain, in 1768 etc., see _Schlözer's_
Briefwechsel, 1779, IV, 587 ff. See adv.: Ueber Sitten,
Temperament etc., Spaniens von einem reisenden Beobachter in
den J., 1777 und 1778, Leipzig, 1781, p. 260, ff.]

[Footnote 256-11: Canale Crimea, III, 346 ff. _Karamsin_,
Russ. Geschichte, VIII, 97, 424.]

[Footnote 256-12: Ordinance of 1721. Compare _Wolf's_
Vernünftige Gedanken, § 483, who at that time highly
disapproved of such compulsion. Quite the reverse, the
Prussian Landrecht, II, Tit. 17, § 133 ff. On the other
hand, in Spires, in 1765 and 1784, persons of good conduct,
good workmen and others of sufficient means, were forbidden
to emigrate. Prohibition under pain of death, in Spanish
Milan; Novæ Constitut., 29, 145. The work: Les Intérêts de
la France maletendus (1752), 258, advocates the prohibition
of emigration as a species of _les majesté_.]

[Footnote 256-13: _Beccaria_, Dei Delitti e delle Pene,
1765, cap. 52. Similarly, _Mirabeau_, in his congratulatory
letter to Fred. Wil. II., and _Benjamin Franklin_, On a
proposed Act for preventing Emigration: Works, IV, 458 ff.
The Dutch were very early advocates of freedom of
emigration. Compare _U. Huber_, De Jure Civit., 1672, II, 4;
_Pufendorff_, Jus. Natur. (1672), VIII, 11. Theorizers
otherwise the most opposite in their views are here agreed.
_Jeremy Bentham_ says that properly speaking a prohibition
against emigration should begin with the words: We, who do
not understand the art of making our subjects happy; in
consideration that if we should allow them to take flight,
they would all betake themselves to strange and better
governed countries, etc. Des Récompenses et des Peines, II,
310. But also _K. L. v. Haller_, Restauration der
Staatswissenschaft, I, 429 ff., 508, demands most
strenuously that there should be freedom of emigration, for
the reason that every man, without prejudice to any one
else, might seek the state constitution which he wanted, _J.
Tucker_ entirely approved the English law prohibiting the
emigration of workmen. Compare also _J. Bodin_, De Republ.,
I, 6.]

[Footnote 256-14: English prohibition of emigration under
Charles I., 1637. _Rymer_, Foedera XX, 143. The story that
Cromwell and Hampden were thus detained in the country may
be false, however. (_Bancroft_, History of the United
States, I, 445.) Earlier prohibition of emigration of the
Norwegian king in relation to Iceland. (_Schlegel_, Grâgas,
Comment Crit. p. XV.) In ancient Greece, the restriction of
emigration by foreign powers contributed very largely to the
democratization of the mother country. Something similar is
impending over Germany if the present emigration towards
North America should be much weakened by a change of
circumstances there.]

[Footnote 256-15: Many governments require proof that the
person emigrating will be admitted into his contemplated new
home, and that he has the means to cover the expenses of the
journey. The threat of not receiving back returning
emigrants has very little effect, for the reason that it is
the most thoughtless who at the moment of emigration
entertain the most rose-colored hopes.]

[Footnote 256-16: I shall treat of the so-called after-tax
(_Nachsteuer_) in the fourth volume of my System.]

[Footnote 256-17: Compare _Lycurg_., adv., Leocrat. _Cæsar_
forbade all persons of senatorial rank to emigrate out of
Italy; other persons between 20 and 40 years of age were not
to remain absent over three consecutive years at most. For
the same reason, the time of military service was shortened.
(_Mommsen_, R. G., III, 491.)]