Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/54

* ITALY. 38 ITALY. prominent in European commercial life, the Ital- ian ports attaiiuil to the first rank. F.ut with the (lccr-.>asinfr relative importance of the Mediter- ranean trathe. when new trade routes were opened and new coinniereial fields lu'carne im- portant, the Italian cities ceased to play a lead- ing part in the world's eomnierce, and the Italian merchant marine is now inferior to that of either Germany or France. The Merchant Marine op Italy Total ves- sels Net tonnage Steamers Sailing vessels TEAR No. Net ton- nage No. Net ton- nage 1878 1890 1897 1900 8.590 6.732 6.2.'i8 6.074 1.029.000 821.000 786.641 873.000 1.52 290 366 409 63.000 1S7.000 259,817 315,000 S,43S (1,412 5.812 5.605 966.000 631.000 526.827 558.000 These fifrures show a jreneral decline, which was not checked until 18117. Kven the increased ton- naj;e in 1000, viz. 873,000 tons, was less than that for 1885, and was far below the l,000,000ton mark, which was exceeded in 1878. fStill, Italy does a much larj^er part of its own shipping than some nations having a larger maritime trade. In the foreign steam shipping of Italy, England has the first place, carrying over 00 per cent, of the incoming and 4,'! per cent, of the outgoing mer- chandise. Italy itself controls aliout 14 per cent. of the incoming and 22 per cent, of the outgoing tonnage. The remainder is distrihuted chiefiy among Greece, Austria-Hungary, Norway, Ger- many, Spain, and Denmark. In coastwise ship- ping Italy controls ahout 04 per cent, of all the steamer shipping and !»0 per cent, of the sailing- vessel transportation. About 2r)0.000 persons are employed in the merchant marine — an increase of about 1.5 per cent, in the last decade, and of about 30 per cent, in the last twenty years. Millions of dollars have been inellectively [laid out of the Italian treasury in ship subsidies to ship-owners. The chief ports are Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Mes- sina, Catania, Palermo, and Venice. Aneona and Brindisi are also well-known seaports. 13.NKiG. The banking system of Italy has been very unsatisfactory, owing to the general financial distress of the country and to misman- agement. Previous to 189.3 there were six banks of issue: the National Bank of the Kingdom, the Bank of Naples, the National Hank of Tus- cany, the Tuscan Bank of Credit, the Roman Bank, and the Bank of Sicily. In 1S02 disclos- ures of illegitimate manipulations of bank funds and the collapse of the Bank of Rouie precipi- tated a financial crisiij. This institution was put into liquidation in 100.3, and, by the law of that year, the National P.ank of the Kingdom and the two Tuscan banks were consolidated as the Bank of It.aly. The riglit of issuing bank-notes was limited to this liank. tlu' Hank fif Naples, and the Bank of Sicily, which were chartered for twenty years from .lanuary. 1804. The amount of bank-note circulation allowed to these banks was fixed at $219,400,000. which is to he grad- ually reduced to .$172,800,000 within fourteen years. The allotment to the Bank of Italy was $100,000,000. to be subsequentlv reduced to $126,- 000.000. or 78", iwr cent, of' the total, the re- mainder being divide<l between the other two banks. The banks, however, may issue notes in excess of llieir allotment when they have suf- ficient security in bullion or when advancing money to the Government. The Bank of Italy was soon charged with the gratuitous handling of all (he fiscal transactions of the Treasury in the provinces, saving to the Slat<' $240,000 an- nually. Thus, without being really a Slate bank, it performs some of the functions usually intrusted to such banks in other countries of Kurope, and is under strict Government control and regulation. The capital stock of the Bank of Italy is nominally $00,000,000, althoiigli the paid- up capital amuunis to only about $42,000,000, part of the diU'erenee having lx'<'n al>^orbcd by the losses of the Bank of Kome. The combined ca])ital of llie other two banks exceeds $12,000,000. The financial condition of the three banks of issue in the last year of the century was as follows: Cash and reserve, $127,000,000; deposits. $.3.34,- ,800,000; notes in circulation. .$227,400,000; total assets and lial)ili(ies, $740,000,000 each. In addition to these Italy has developed, with great success, a system of popular cooperative banks. These are associations of people of small means who combine their savings for mutual loans and credit, and do a general banking busi- ness on a comparatively small scale, discounting commercial paper, workingmen's liens, treasury checks, etc. ; keeping current accounts, and ad- vancing loans "on honor,' i.e. without any security whatever, to need.v people who can bring recom- mendaticms of two members of the association. The first bank of this kind was opened in 180.5 in Milan as the result of the agitation of Sig. Lnzzatti. Ten years later there were 82 such banks with a membership of more than 77.000 and a capital and reserve fund of more than $9,000,000. In 1880 their numlier increased to ."ilO, the membership to more than 250,000, and their working capital to nearly $18,400,000. In 1899 they numbered 810. with a proportion- ately increased capital and membership. Other banks operating in Italy are credit banks, agra- rian credit companies built on the plan of the jiopular eoilperative banks, eri'dit-foncier banks, savings banks, and Government ])ostal savings banks. In 1900 there were ,5143 post-ofTice .savings bank offices with 3,003,340 dcjiositors and total deposits amounting to $130,400,000. There were in the same year 404 offices of the ordinary sav- ings banks, with 1.004.000 depositors and deposits aggregating $293,011,310. In 1805 the eoilpera- tive savings banks and ordinary credit companies liad 793 offices, 374.294 depositors, and deposits aggregating $53,210,000. There are six clearing bouses in Italy, which increased in vohmii' of Inisiness in the ten years 1880-99 from $3,3,82.754.000 to $7,173,017,000, or more than 100 ])cr cent. Finances. The condition of Italian finance is the country's blight. The enormous debts that the Government of United Italy had to assume, the costly wars waged to bring about the unifi- cation, the new debts incurred for public works, and the constantly growing expenditure for the army and navy, have all led to the acciunulation of such heavy burdens that there is a distressing state of affairs. Although the annual budgets of the Government usually show a surplus, this is often achieved with the help of loans and other objectionable means, and always through burden-