Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/485

 TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

449

sniffs to the value of 1,000,000/. are made by 12,000 operatives. The manufacture of watches and jewellery in "the cantons of Neu- chatel, Geneva, Yaud, Bern, and Solotlmrn occupies 3G,000 work- men, who produce annually 500,000 watches — three-sevenths of the quantity of gold, and four-sevenths of silver — valued at 1,800,000Z. In the cantons of St. Gall and Appenzell, G,000 workers make 400,000/. of embroidery annually. The printing and dyeing factories of Glarus turn out goods to the value of 6,0O0J. per annum. The manufacture of cotton goods occupies upwards of 1,000,000 spindles, 4,000 looms, and 20,000 operatives, besides 38,000 hand-loom weavers.

From official returns recentlylaid before the Swiss Federal Govern- ment by the Minister of the Interior, it appears that the railways open for public traffic in Switzerland have an aggregate length of 1,310 kilometres, or 820 English miles, distributed among thirteen companies, the largest of which are, the Amalgamated Swiss Rail- way, the Swiss North Eastern, the Swiss Central, the Canton of Berne State Railway, the Swiss Western, the Fribourg Railway, and the Franco- Swiss Railway. There is one kilometre of railway to 32 square kilometres of superficial area and 1,965 inhabitants, or 509 metres per thousand of the total population of the country.

Switzerland has a very complete system of telegraphs, which excepting wires for railway service, is wholly under' the control of the state. At the end of September 1870, there were 2,130 miles of lines, and 3.717 miles of wire. The number of telegraph mes- sages sent in the year 18G9 was upwards of half a million, having increased to this amount from 109,600 in 1854. An uniform charge of one franc is made for every inland telegram of 20 words. It is found that nearly 1 4 miles of telegraphic line exist in Switzerland to every 100 square miles of country, and that there is one telegraphic office for every 10.000 inhabitants.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The French metric system of money, weights, and measures has been generally adopted in Switzerland, with some changes of names, and of subdivisions. These, and their British equivalents, are :

Money.

The Franc, of 10 Batzen, and 100 Happen or Centimes. Average rate of exchange, 2.) Francs —£1 sterling

Weights akd Measuhbs.

The Centner, of 50 Kilogrammes and 100 P/und= 110 lbs. avoirdupois. The Arpcnt (Land) = 8-9ths of an acre.

The Pfund, or pound, chief unit of weight, is legally divided into decimal Grammes, but the people generally prefer the use of the old halves and quarters, named Halb-pfund, and Viertel-pfund.

G G