In general, the Germans and Magyars are the ruling element, and the Slavs are held in subjection. The former races constitute the nobility, and own the land; the latter are the peasants and laborers. The management of public and private financial affairs has largely been monopolized by the Jews, who have been more liberally treated here than in any other country of modern Europe. Along with this political inequality there has gone a pronounced economic inequality, and while universal manhood suffrage has recently been granted by the emperor, it yet remains to be seen whether it will bring about an improvement of the economic conditions, which are the great immediate stimulus to emigration. One of the greatest blights of Austria-Hungary is the system of landlordism, and the antiquated system of landholding and agriculture, which still persists, and seriously handicaps the country in competition with more advanced nations. These economic disabilities are accompanied by various social and political disturbances. Taxes are high and fall unequally upon different classes of the population, exempting the great landowners from their fair share of the burden. The terms of military service are severe. The birth rate and death rate are both high, and the poverty, ignorance, inequality, and helplessness of the people make the overpopulation seem greater than it is. The emigration is almost wholly from the peasant class, which does not, however, represent the lowest section of the population. Below the peasant in the social scale are the cottager, the laborer, and the farm servant. We thus have, in the case of Austria-Hungary, an interesting combination of economic, political, and social causes, all resting upon racial heterogeneity.[115]