It is in this middle class that the Jews are chiefly to be found. Owing to this fact, as well as through the action of historical conditions, the Jews occupy an exceptional position in the economic activities and the social life of each of the countries of Eastern Europe. A survey of their economic and social position in each country will serve to clarify the last thirty years of their history in Eastern Europe and to give some of the causes underlying their vast movement from these countries to Western Europe and particularly to the United States. FOOTNOTES: [2] Kovalevsky, _La crise russe_ (Paris, 1906), p. 111. [3] _Cf._ Witte, _Vorlesungen ueber Volks- und Staatswirtschaft_ (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1913), p. 40. Milyoukov, _Russia and its Crisis_ (University of Chicago Press, 1905), p. 439. [4] _Cf._ Witte, _op. cit._, p. 52. [5] _Cf._ Milyoukov, _op. cit._, p. 246 _et seq._ [6] An interesting statement of the principles of the Slavophiles may be obtained from Simkhovitch (_International Quarterly_, Oct., 1904). [7] White, _Autobiography_ (New York, 1905), vol. ii, p. 35. [8] Owing to the similarity of conditions in Russia and Roumania, particularly as regards the Jews, Roumania has been considered, practically throughout, immediately after Russia. [9] Kogalniceancu, "Die Agrarfrage in Rumaenien" _Archiv fuer Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik_, vol. xxxii, p. 804. [10] _Ibid._, p. 184. Jorga, _Geschichte des Rumaenischen Volkes_ (Gotha, 1905), vol. ii, p. 374. CHAPTER III THE JEWS IN EASTERN EUROPE: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POSITION The economic and social life of the Jews in Eastern Europe has moved along the familiar channels of commerce, industry and urban life characteristic of the Jews in all countries during the middle ages. An examination of the economic position and function and the principal social characteristics of the Jews reveals the fact that they play an important part in each of these countries. This we shall see by tracing their principal economic activities and some significant phases of their social life. I. RUSSIA A review of the occupations of the Jews in the Russian Empire shows that those engaged in the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits constituted 39 per cent of the total Jewish population gainfully employed. This was the largest occupational group. Commerce engaged 32 per cent. Together the industrial and commercial classes comprised seven-tenths of all Jews engaged in gainful occupations. On the other hand, only 3 per cent were employed in agricultural pursuits.