Poverty in Austrian Galicia  Poverty in Galicia was extreme, particularly in the late 19th century. The reasons included little interest in reform from the major landholders and the Austrian government, population growth resulting in small peasant plots, lack of education, primitive agricultural techniques, and a vicious circle of chronic malnutrition; famine; and disease, reducing productivity. Poverty in the province was so widespread that the term "Galician misery" ("nędza galicyjska") or "Galician poverty" ("bieda galicyjska") has become proverbial, and the poverty and regular famines in the region were often compared to the situation in British Ireland. Austria-Hungary failed to create transportation networks necessary for the development of industries and markets throughout the empire. Unlike imperial Germany, the Habsburgs were hostile toward the idea of building railway systems in the provinces, and remained fixated on their own metropolis. The whole of Austrian Bohemia was served by only one line throughout the 1860s. Emperor Francis opposed further construction "lest revolution might come into the country." Railways were owned privately in Austria-Hungary before 1881, and only gradually acquired by the state interest until the outbreak of World War One. Viennese banks – wrote Clive Trebilcock of Cambridge – were tapping the eastern grain-plains [of Galicia] in fully colonial style. The new state borders had cut Galicia off from many of its traditional trade routes and markets of the Polish sphere, resulting in stagnation of economic life and decline of Galician towns. Lviv lost its status as a significant trade center. After a short period of limited investments, the Austrian government started the fiscal exploitation of Galicia and drained the region of manpower through conscription to imperial army. The Austrians decided that Galicia should not develop industrially but remain an agricultural area that would serve as a supplier of food products and raw materials to other Habsburg provinces. New taxes were instituted, investments were discouraged, and cities and towns were neglected. Education lagged behind, with only 15% or so of the peasants attending any kind of school, meaning that few peasants had the skills to pursue other careers. Even if they did, no major Galician city (Kraków or Lwów) was a center of significant industry, which gave peasants little alternatives to their profession. The Austrian imperial government showed absolutely no interest in schooling and subsequent reform such as industrialization, which would upset the system in which Galicia was a cheap provider of agricultural products for the Empire, and a market for inferior industrial goods, a situation profitable for both the governments and the landowners.