In commerce and trade we find the opposite ratio. Here the number of persons independently engaged has greatly increased, but the number of employes and workers has increased likewise. The number of women independently engaged in commerce has increased especially; they chiefly are either widows who seek to make their living as small dealers, or married women who endeavour to increase their husbands’ income. The number of persons independently engaged in commerce increased by 310,584 = 44.3 per cent., from 1882 to 1907. But the number of employes and wage-workers has increased still more (by 364,361 = 258.8, and by 1,232,263 = 169.4 per cent.). This shows how tremendously commerce and trade have developed, particularly from 1895 to 1907. There are almost twice as many employes as prior to that period, and among these almost six times as many female employes. During the period from 1882 to 1907 the entire number of persons independently engaged in the three occupations increased by 5.7 per cent.; it did not keep pace then with the increase in population (36.48 per cent.). The number of employes increased by 325.4 per cent., and the number of wage-workers by 39.1 per cent. We must furthermore take into consideration that among 5,490,288 independent persons, many lead an entirely proletarian existence. Among the 2,086,368 manufactories enumerated there were no less than 994,743 small producers who worked alone and 875,518 who did not employ over five assistants. In commerce there were, in 1907 among 709,231 establishments, no less than 232,780 maintained by the owners without assistance. There were, besides, 5240 porters, errand-boys, etc., and thousands of insurance agents, book agents, etc. Another point to be considered is that the number of independent persons in the three occupations does not coincide with the number of establishments. If a firm, for instance, has dozens of branch establishments, as is frequently the case in the tobacco trade, or if a concern runs a number of stores, each branch is enumerated as an individual establishment. The same is true of industrial enterprises, when, for instance, a machine factory also runs an iron foundry, a carpenter shop, etc. The figures then do not convey sufficient information regarding the concentration of capital on the one hand and the standard of living on the other. And yet, in spite of all these deficiencies, the results of the latest census of June 12, 1907, present a picture of the most powerful concentration of capital in industry, commerce and traffic. They show that, hand in hand with the industrialization of our entire economic system, a concentration of all the means of production into a few hands is rapidly progressing.