Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/473

 STATISTICS.] I T A I, Y 453 the last work, indicates very strikingly the great irregularity of the distribution of the various forms of contracts. The rent system would appear to be gaining ground, and the mezzadria and similar methods to be losing in importance. 1 Manufactures. Though Italy is pre-eminently an agricultural country, its manufacturing industries are of considerable import ance, and some of them have a long and varied history. Of chief note is the silk trade, though it has suffered greatly from the silkworm disease which broke out in 1854. According to De Vecchi (Arch, di Stat., 1876) the total annual production of raw silk in Italy previously amounted to 7,612,000 ft&amp;gt; ; in 1865 it was reduced Maccia to the Milan chamber of commerce in 1881 the cocoon harvest amounted in 1878 to 81,843,740 It, in 1879 to 41, 648,200 tb, and in 1880 to 79,546,280 ft, which would represent in round numbers 5,500,000 tt&amp;gt; of raw silk for the first year, 2,798,000 tt&amp;gt; for the second, and 5,345,000 for the third. The following table (XIV.) from the same report indicates, with approximate accuracy, the contributions of the different regions to these totals: 1878. Quantity in tl&amp;gt;. 1879. 1880. 1878. Value in lir. is 79. 1880. Piedmont 16,905,768 9,142,359 12,209,784 31,640,711 20,674,341 22,247,904 Liguna 121,000 193,600 297,000 396,000 Lombardy. . . . 31,022 110 13,915,649 33,177,509 51,647,796 31,732,077 50,247,949 Veneto 17,533,998 7.832,974 19,146,399 : 30,426,995 19,834,645 30,276,210 Emilia 4,054 2o7 3,235,513 4,045,973 8,001,7o7 8,581,731 7 488 170 Tuscan v 4,040 333 1,343,236 2,881,507 9,736,425 3,819,036 5,540,179 Marches, Umbria. and Com- / o OOQ - area. -,-Jy,V J 2,578,76,9 3,371,471 5,026,410 6,995,717 5,914,461 Neapolitan Provinces .. 5.270,991 3,110,305 4,139,625 6,748,745 5,802,564 5 990,060 Sardinia 66,000 10,000 Sicily .... 717 200 368,500 374,000 i 1,180,120 7u3, 500 510 000 Total 81 843,746 41,648,307 79,546,471 { 144,108,909 98 440 611 1 ;) 8 6 9 933 As a silk-producing country in fact Italy ranks second only to China, and leaves all its other competitors far behind. The cul ture is carried on in at least 5300 communes, and in 1877 it was cal culated that 4839 men, 81,165 women, and 25,373 children were employed in the unwinding of the cocoons an operation which was formerly effected for the most part by the growers themselves, but has now passed into the hands of those who can bring better appli ances and more modern methods to bear. The district in which the unwinding is most extensively carried on is Lombardy, and it is there too that improvements in the process are most widely adopted: while in the Veneto, for example, there are 10,031 of the old-fashioned ovens to 4698 of the modern steam apparatuses, in Lombardy the latter number 29,576 and the former only 9305. If we turn to what is more distinctively the manufacture of the silk, we find the pre-eminence of Lombardy more strongly emphasized. The position it occupies is evident from the follow ing table (XV.) : Employed in silk-throwing, i Spindles. Men. Women. Chil dren. Total. Active. Inactive. Total. Piedmont 1.270 57 4.016 172 23 7.1 s:j 371 21.814 1,865 477 2,414 121 33.051 445 110 10,867 549 58.881 5.48-2 610 273,332 8.150 1.484.302 42.581 3,070 83.706 4,510 153.659 11.4Sfl 302 357.038 12.660 1.637,961 54.067 3,422 6,264 2.400 12 8,293 150 S41 Lombardy Veneto Emilia Umbria 1*4 4(i 77 ;!00 5S 4,000 &amp;gt; .tcfi 2,264 Tuscany 12 Koine &amp;gt; 2 4 ! 1 -1 Abru/.zi and Molise ioo 20 531 33 37 5,S32 150 818 2,4(11 &quot;23 Calabria A 10 13 Sieily Total 5,643 32.364 36,345 74,352 1.824.707 258,461 2,083,168 Next in importance to the silk industry stands the cotton manu facture. During the American war the cultivation of cotton in Italy received a remarkable but temporary stimulus. In 1864 it oc cupied about 227,645 acres, and the produce amounted to 622,896 quintals, but the corresponding figures for 1873 were only 85,422 acres and 180,230 quintals. In 1877 Italy had only about 880,000 cotton spindles, or rather more than Belgium; and these consumed about 264,000 quintals of the fibre. Liguria and Piedmont contain the greatest number of spinning mills. In the number of its cotton looms, however, Lombardy stands highest, and Liguria, Piedmont, I and Campania follow. The total number for the country is stated ! at more than 13,000. Of the cotton goods the great proportion consists in the coarser fabrics, muslins, tulles, &c. , being obtained almost exclusively from abroad. The average importation of cotton i yarn for the ten years 1870-1879 amounted to 109,000 quintals, and that of cotton fabrics during the same period to 1-16,000 quintals. As has been already seen, Italy is a great wool-growing country ; and while it exports about 1,760,000 Ib of the native produce, it imports, mainly from South America, a quantity varying from 10,382,680 tb in 1870 to 18,983,600 It) in 1879. * The following table (XVI.) indicates the extent of the industry, which, unlike that of cotton, has a long and in parts brilliant history in the country : The raw material for these silk-throwing factories is partly ob tained from abroad, in spite of the large home supply already indi cated; fora considerable proportion of this though much less than was formerly the case is exported for manufacture at Lyons and elsewhere. According to Signer Fuzier in his Paris exhibition report, 44,000,000 tb of silk from other European countries, and 176.000,000 ft&amp;gt; from Asia, are worked up by the Italian spinners. The special department of cascami employs about 27,000 spindles in Jesi, Novara, Meina, and Zuniglio. In silk-weaving Italy stands comparatively low. Signor Ellena, general director of the customs, 2 estimates the number of looms at from 10,000 to 12,000, of which only 665 were power-loomsvery meagre totals in comparison with those even of the Swiss canton of Zurich, which numbers about 1000 power-looms and 40,000 hand- looms. Lombardy (especially the town of Como)is again the principal seat of the industry, Campania ranking second, an 1 Piedmont third. a; of Horse-Power. Workers in Spinning. Work*- s in W iivins. B 3 & Hydraulic. B 3 Children. Children. IMedmont 152 74 150 12 588 24 10 2403 87 283 1600 83 244 2138, 115 989 40 145 109 1485 179 139 376 36 12 794 58 115 18 33 2700 152 358 1949 70 219 20 1702 128 498 956 19 159 548 16 48 187 12 62 Liguria 10 Lombardy 65 Veneio : 51 Emilia ... 8 I mb.ia 10 Marches ! 1 Tuscany 105 Rome 34 42 15 161 &quot;4 629 39 816 742 127 14 652 23 17 1 5 429 8 333 70 26 514 12 723 141 1 650 159 170 14 362 10 24 467 93- 368 3 Abruzzi and Molise 2 Campania 91 Calabria 9 Sardinia 2 Total 540 1080 6184 5351 : 2696 2520 6985 4201 1804 f 1 1 On the mez/.ftdria svstoiu, nee al - A large proportion of th facts menti are borrowed from V. Ellena s pape: in .-I ^forc than 000 hands are further employed in the shoddy trade. With few exceptions, the Italian factories receive the wool in its raw state from the grower, and perform in succession all the various operations of washing, scouring, carding, dyeing, weaving, and dressing. They manage to supply a large part of the home demand, and also export a small quantity of goods. The flax and hemp industries have been prosecuted in Italy for centuries ; but a large proportion of the manufacture is still carried on by hand-loom weavers working in their own houses to the num ber probably of more than 68,000. The following table (XVII.) indicates the distribution of th&amp;lt;i factories:
 * &amp;gt; : . )&amp;lt;
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