The soil is not very productive, although agriculture flourishes in the valleys and on the level ground; grain has to be imported to meet the demand. In 1883 only 41 '8 per cent. of the total area (in 1878, 41·6) was devoted to agriculture, while meadow land and pasture occupied 11 per cent. The chief grain crops in 1883 were rye (44,442 acres, yielding 16,112 tons), oats (42,447 acres, 17,343 tons), wheat (25,252 acres, 9033 tons), and barley (19,015 acres, 94,456 tons). The cultivation of potatoes is very general (31,006 acres, 143,327 tons). Tobacco, hops, and flax (in 1883, 997 acres) are also raised. The Werrathal and the other fertile valleys produce large quantities of fruit. Sheep and cattle raising is a tolerably important branch of industry throughout the duchy; horses are bred in Kamburg. In 1883 Saxe-Meiningen contained 5174 horses, 66,733 cattle, 58,940 sheep, 45,136 pigs, and 26,817 goats. The extensive and valuable forests, of which 75 per cent. are coniferous trees, occupy 41·9 per cent. of the entire area. Nearly one half of the forests belong to the state and about one-third to public bodies and institutions, leaving little more than a sixth for private owners. The mineral wealth of the duchy is not inconsiderable. Iron, coal, and slate are the chief minerals worked. There are salt-works at Salzungen and Sulza, the former the most important in Thuringia; and the mineral water of Friedrichshall is well known. The manufacturing industry of Saxe-Meiningen is very active, especially in the districts of Sonneberg, Gräfenthal, and Saalfeld. Iron goods of various kinds, glass and pottery, school-slates, marbles, &c., are produced; the abundant timber fosters the manufacture of all kinds of wooden articles, especially toys; and textile industry is also carried on to a slight extent.

The capital of the duchy is Meiningen (in 1881 11,227 inhabitants). Of the sixteen other towns (Salzungen, Wasungen, Hildburghausen, Eisfeld, Sonneberg, Saalfeld, Pössneck, Kamburg, &c.) none has so many as 10,000 inhabitants. There are 392 villages and hamlets. In 1880 the population was 207,075 (217 per square mile), of whom 30 per cent. lived in communities of more than 2000. As in the other Saxon duchies the population is almost exclusively Lutheran; in 1883 202,970 belonged to that confession, 2274 were Roman Catholics, 204 of other Christian sects, and 1627 Jews.

Saxe-Meiningen is a limited monarchy, its constitution resting on a law of 1829, subsequently modified. The diet, elected for six years, consists of 24 members, of whom 4 are elected by the largest landowners, 4 by those who pay the highest personal taxes, and 16 by the other electors. The franchise is enjoyed by all domiciled males over twenty-five years of age who pay at least a minimum of taxes. The government is carried on by a ministry of five, with departments for the ducal house and foreign affairs, home affairs, justice, education and public worship, and finance. The returns of the state-lands and the ordinary state-revenue are treated in separate budgets. The estimate for the period 1884-86 puts the annual income from the former at £105,340 and the annual expenditure at £77,915, while the annual income and expenditure of the latter are balanced at £145,148. Half of the surplus of £27,425 is credited to each fund. The duke’s civil list of £19,714 (394,286 marks) is paid out of the returns from the state-lands, at one time in the possession of the reigning house. Saxe-Meiningen has one vote in the federal council and sends two deputies to the reichstag.

The original territory of the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, founded in 1680 by Bernhard, third son of Ernest the Pious, consisted of what is now the western horn of the duchy, from Henneberg northwards. Bernhard was succeeded in 1706 by his three sons; but by 1746 the only survivor was the youngest, Antony Ulrich, who reigned alone until his death in 1763. The duchy had meanwhile been considerably increased in extent; but contentions and petty wars with the other Saxon principalities on questions of inheritance, the extravagance of the court, and the hardships of the Seven Years’ War plunged it into bankruptcy and distress. A happier time was enjoyed under Charlotte Amalie, Antony’s wife, who ruled as regent for her two sons Charles (1775-1782) and George (1782-1803), and also under these princes themselves. George, who had introduced the principle of primogeniture, was succeeded by his infant son Bernhard Erich Freund, born in 1800. The war with France at the beginning of the present century, with its attendant quartering of troops, conscription, and levies of money, joined with cattle-disease and scanty harvests in once more plunging the country into distress, from which it but slowly recovered. Bernhard had already spontaneously granted a liberal constitution to his subjects in 1824, when large additions (530 square miles) consequent upon the redistribution of the Saxon lands in 1826 more than doubled his possessions and rendered reorganization necessary. Among the additions to Saxe-Meiningen were the duchy of Hildburghausen (whence the full title of the present duchy is Saxe-Meiningen-Hildburghausen), which had been founded in 1680 by Ernest, the sixth son of Ernest the Pious; the principality of Saalfeld, which, founded by John Ernest, Ernest’s seventh son, in 1680, had been united to Coburg in 1735; and the districts of Themar, Kranichfeld, Kamburg, and other smaller territories. Saxe-Meiningen, like the other Saxon duchies, entered the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806; but in 1866, unlike its neighbours, it declared for Austria in the war against Prussia. The land was at once occupied by Prussian troops, and Bernhard abdicated (September 1866) in favour of his son George, who made peace with Prussia and entered the North German Confederation. In 1871 the dispute which had lasted since 1826 between the duke and the diet as to the respective rights of each to the state-lands was terminated by a compromise.