But the numerical results, as they appear from the three censuses, and as they have been interpreted by those who have studied them, are pointing out to quite the reverse. The position of the small industries in the life of an industrial country is exactly the same which could have been foreseen twenty-five years ago, and very often it is described in the very same words that I have used.
The German Statistisches Jahrbuch gives us the distribution of workmen in the different industries of the German Empire in 1882 and 1895. Leaving aside all the concerns which belong to trade and those for the sale of alcoholic drinks (955,680 establishments, 2,165,638 workpeople), as also 42,321 establishments belonging to horticulture, fishing, and poultry (103,128 workpeople in 1895), there were, in all the industries, including mining, 1,237,000 artisans working single-handed, and over 900,000 establishments in which 6,730,500 persons were employed. Their distribution in establishments of different sizes was as follows:
| Establishments | Employees | Average per establishment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 909,972 | 6,763,503 | 7.5 |
| with artisans | 2,146,972 | 8,000,503 | 4 |
| Artisans working single-handed | 1,237,000 | 1,237,000* | -- |
| From 1 to 5 employees | 752,572 | 1,954,125 | 2.6 |
| From 6 to 50 employees | 139,459 | 1,902,049 | 13 |
| Over 50 employees | 17,941 | 2,907,329 | 162 |
Twelve years later the industries, as they appeared in the next census, made in 1907, were distributed as follows: