Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/169

Rh rade. 10 ll(Stl‘)‘. lnks. ingra- Lc'nu3 n(.-x- veri- ~lri- i p ‘ovu- GENOA The vast bequests of the duke of Gallicra have cirabled thc autho- ritics to undertake (1878) air elaborate scheme for the cxte-nsion and improvcnient of the port, including, not only a great additroii of the harbour area, but also the construction of a system of wlrarvcs and warehouses, which have hitherto been surprisingly insufticicnt. It is ditliciilt to believe that in one of the _grcate_st harbours of liurope the goods should be “discharged into lighters, slowly towed by rowing boats to the side of the (prays, removed by hand labour from the lighters to uncovered quays, and again trans- ferred by hand labour ft the railway." In spite of all thcse_d1s- advantages the shipping trade of Genoa has rapidly increased since the consolidation of Italy. From 1815 to 1825 there was a large trade in grain, with a corresponding expansion of other branches. A sudden change was produced by a system of dill":-rential duties in favour of native grain; instead of 1000 foreign vessels with a toiniagc of 95,000 as in 1821-5, there were only 760 vessels on an average in the three years 1825-8 ; and there was no corresponding increase in native shipping, which rose only frorii 55 to 70 vessels. The more liberal tariffs attached to the corniriercial treaties, cori- cliidcd about 1852 with France, England, and Gernrairy, gave a new impulse to foreign trade, and this -was followed up by Count L'a.vour's law cxcriiptiiig all foreign grain from duty. The priii- cipal imports are petroleum, raw cotton, wool, grain, coal, metal goods, hidcs, tobacco, and lilnglish-cured lish. The total value imported in 1876 was £1-1,324,347, and in 1877 £12,066,91l, while the exports for the same years amounted to £2,088,578 and .£1,968,503——exelusive in both cases of goods irierely in transit. lhiring the five years 1873-7 the total number of vessels arriving at Genoa was on an average 2633 per aniiiinr, with an annual ton- nage of more than 1,000,000 tons. Of these vessels about 1510 per aiiniirn sailed under the Italian flag with 533,900 tons; 421 were English with 284,390 tons, and 320 French with 105,945 tons. The opening of the St Gotthard Railway is expected to give a. great impulse to Gcrioese trade. The local industry devotes itself mainly to the maiiirfactiire of cotton and silk, gold, silver, ivory, and coral, paper and leather- goods, macaroni and vcrmicclli, sugar, and preserved fruits. The coarser cotton cloths or bordatti ai'e the favourite wear of the Ligurian population. Iron-founding and shipbuilding are carried on in the district, and there is a growing export trade in all articles of irrarket gardening and lloriculture. In lIichelet's phrase, it may almost be said that Genoa was a bank before it was a city, and its riioiiey brisiness is still greater than that of any other town in Italy. The Bank of St George, founded in 1407, was “one of the most ancient and celebrated banks of eireulation and deposit in Europe," but it never recovered from the damage done to its credit by the appropriation of its trea- sure, ﬁrst by the Austrians in 1740, and again by the French in 1800. It no longer exists, and the famous building of the 13th cciit.iiry in which it was accommodated is now used as a custoriis house. A new bank was founded at Genoa in 1844, which, since its union in 1855 with a similar institution at Turin, bears the nariic of the National ll-ank. It has branches at Turin, Florence, Milan, and Naples. Up till 1871 its only irirportairt rival was the (‘assa di Seonto, but about this time the Gciioese, in the words of the British consul, “went mad on the subject of new corrrpaiiics, and in a single year they started not less than thirty-thrce banking, trading, mining, shipping, and manufacturing concerns." The result was a series of bankruptcies. Bank after bank failcd ; and criminal proceedings were in sc'cral cascs instituted against the bank directors. The only notes current in Genoa in 1875 were those of the National Bank and the Tuscan National Bairk. The Genoese have long been known as a hard-working and frugal people; and the lower classes of the whole Ligurian coast are iriurcd to privatiori and lia.rdships. Since about 1850 there has been a strong current of emigration to South America. About 1858 the Liguriau settlers in Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, Rio de la Plata, ltio Jaiieiro, Lima, and Valparaiso were estimated at 60,000; and since that date the number of cmigi'aiits leaving northern Italy by way of Genoa has inc1'cascd to 80,000 or 90,000 per aiiriiiiii. A very considerable proportion of this number return to their native country in their latter years, and the successful adven- turer usually assists his younger brethren to follow in his footsteps. A large trade li:is sprung up with South America, the newest feature of which is an exportation of Piedrriontese wine. According to the returns of 1876, the income of Genoa was 6,343,175 francs, including octroi dues for 4,326,000 francs. The ordinary, extraordinary, and casual expenses for 1875 werc—for municipal administration, 608,461 francs; local police and sanitary expenses, 1,038,418 ; administration of law, 227,376 ; public works, 2,312,470; education, 692,662; religious worship, 12,117 ; and public charities, 6-18,468 francs. The debt of the city in 1876 was 36,731,457 francs. The council dircetiiig the local government of the city is chosen by a body, according to the last returns, of 41,984 electors, every citizen paying 40 francs of taxes being entitled to vote, and every voter being eligible as a councillor. The head of the council is the 157 syndic or mayor, chosen by the king from the 12 members of the giunta or administrative committee, who are themselves ap )OllltC(l. from the entire body of the 60 municipal councillors. llesides possessing this municipal council, Genoa. is also the seat of the provincial council, elected in the same way, but presided over by the prefect, or representative of the Govcrnriieiit. In 1848 the population of the city was 100,382; by 1862 it had Popula- iiicreased to 127,986, but a. careful census undertaken by the iniirii- tion. eipality in 1871 found no more than 120,595, exclusive, however, both of resident strangers and absent natives. The principal causes which had tended to retard the natural growth of the popula- tion were the cholera of 1866—67, and the small-pox of 1870,—tlie latter having actually occasioned an excess of 1178 deaths over the births for the year. To this must be added the removal of the Government arsenal to Spczia in 1870-1, and the tendency, which has gradually made itself felt since the opening of the railways, to settle in the suburban towns. The stretch of coast for miles alon" the gulf is an almost continuous line of country houses am mansions, and indeed, to quote the words of M. lteclus, the whole rivicra from Ventiiniglia to Spezia assumes more and more the aspect of a single town where the populous quarters alternate with groups of villas and gardens. Proceeding westwards we are no sooner beyond the fortiﬁcations than we ﬁnd ourselves in the flourishing town of Sampierdarena, that is, San Pier d’Arena, or St Peter of the Sands. Down to the iriiddle of last century it was mainly inhabited by the wealthier classes, but has since become the seat of great industrial and commercial activity. Its population, which in 1814 was only 5345, was upwards of 17,000 in 1877. From Sampierdarena a stone bridge of the 16th century, memorable as the spot when lllasséna signed the capitulation of Genoa, leads across the Polcevcra to Corneliano, a niarket-town with 2698 iii- liabitaiits at the census of 1.871 ; and Corneliaiio in its turn connects itself with Sestri Ponente, a busy place of f1'om 9000 to 10,000 inhabitants, with a. large shipbuilding trade. Towards the cast there is a similar succession ot' villages and towns. I1 is-tory. —The early importance, both political and commercial, of Genoa is attested by the part which it played in the Second Punic Var. Its supremacy amongst the neighbouring munici- palities and po iilations is not less evident from the inscription on the bronze tab e still to be seen in the council-hall of the city. Its history during the dark ages, throughout the Lombard and Carol- ingian periods, is but the repetition of the general history of the Italian communes, which succeeded in snatching from contending princes and barons the ﬁrst charters of their freedom. The patriotic spirit and naval prowess of the Gcnoese, developed in their defensive wars against the Saracens; led to the foundation of a popular cori- stitiitiori, and to the rapid growth of a powerful marine. F rom the necessity of lcagiiirig together against the common Saracen foe, Genoa united with Pisa in expelling the llloslcnis from the island of Sardinia; but the Sardiniaii territory thus acquired soon fur- iiislicd occasions of jealousy to the conquering allies, and there commenced between the two republics the long naval wars des- tiricd t.o terminate so fatally for Pisa. 'ith not less adroitness than Vcnicc, Genoa saw and secured all the advantages of the great carrying trade which the crusades created between 'estern Europe and the East. The scaports wrested at the same period from the Saracens along the Spanish and Barbary coasts became important Gciioese colonics, whilst in the Levant, on the shores of the Black Sea, and along the banks of the Euphrates were erected Genoesc fortresses, of which the strength some 40 years ago commanded the admiration of the young traveller llloltke. No 'onder if these conquests generated in the minds of the Venetians and the Pisans frcsh jealousy against Genoa, and provoked fresh wars; but the struggle between Genoa and Pisa was brought to a disastrous cori- cliisioii for the latter state by the battle of Mcloria. The commer- cial and naval successes of the Gerioese during the Middle Ages were the rriore remarkable because, unlike their rivals, the Vcnetians, they were the unceasing prey to intestine discord——the Gciioese. coiriiiioiis and nobles ﬁghting against each other, rival factions arriongst the nobles themselves striving to grasp the supreme power in the state, nobles and commons alike invoking the arbitration and rule of some foreign captain as the sole means of obtaining a temporary truce. From these contests of rival nobles, in which the names of Spiiiola and Doi'ia stand forth with greatest prominence, Genoa was soon drawn into the great vortex of the Guelph and Gliibellinc factions; but its recognition of foreign autliority—suc- ecssively German, Neapolitan, and lIilancse—gave way to a state of greater independence in 1339, when the government assiirricd a nrore permanent form with the appointriicnt of the ﬁrst (loge, an oflice held at Genoa for life, in the person of Simon Boccaiicra. Alternate victories and defeats of the Vcnctians and Geriocse—tlie most terrible being the defeat sustained by the Venetians at Chioggia in 1380—eiidcd by establishing the great relative 1rifer1- ority of the Gciioese rulers, who fell under the power now of France, now of the Visconti of Milan, until the national spirit appeared to regain its ancient vigour in 1528, when Andrea Doria succeeded in throiving oil‘ the French domination and restoring the old form of History