Knoll near the West End of the Pan Sand.-Buoyage on the East Coast,.. Light-House on the Southern part of Bermuda.--British Marine Society.-Point-a-Petre, Guadaloupe,. 96 Buoyage of the Gull Stream.-Port of Wilmington, North Carolina,.. RAILROAD AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Accidents on Railways in England.-Receipts of English Railways, from 1843 to 1845,.. Reduction of Fares on English Railways.--Troy and Greenbush (New York) Railroad,.. Rates of Freight and Toll on Coal on the Reading Railroad,............. Expenses of the British Steam Packet Service.-Speed of the Hudson River Steamers,... Imports, Exports, and Consumption of the United States, from 1789 to 1845,............. Statistics of British Trade and Commerce, in 1845,...... Value of British and Irish Produce and Manufactures exported from the United Kingdom to different ........ British Revenue of Customs in each year, from 1839 to 1845,......... British Silk Goods, value exported from U. Kingdom to different countries, from 1826 to 1845,... JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY AND FINANCE. Savings Banks in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland,. Movement of the Ohio Banks, Resources and Liabilities, May, 1846,.. Population of the German City of Berlin,.... JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. Mines of Lake Superior.-Copper Smelting in the West,........ Manufactures and Products of Connecticut, in 1845.-Manufacture of Potato Sugar,... American Manufactures in Russia.-French Gobelin Manufactory.-Lead Mines of Illinois,... Commerce and the Art of the Mechanic.-Gold Printed Muslins,..... The Wines of Syria.-British Customs Duties in India.-Fire Insurance in New York,.. First American Whale Ship in England,.......... British Statistics of the Cotton Trade.-Marblehead Fisheries,..... Decrease of the Madeira Wine Trade.--First Importation of American Poultry into England,. HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. JULY, 1846. Art. I.-PRESENT STATE OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY IN ITALY.* DUCHY OF MODENA-POPULATION OF THE ITALIAN STATES-PRODUCTS-MANUFACTURING AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY-MARINE-COMMERCE OF MODENA BY LAND AND SEA-DUCHY OF LUCCA, ITS POPULATION-EMPLOYMENTS OF THE PEOPLE-MARITIME COMMERCE-EXPORTSGRAND DUCHY OF TUSCANY-ITS POPULATION, COMMERCE, AND INDUSTRY-MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PISA-NAVIGATION OF THE ARNO-RAILWAYS IN TUSCANY, ETC., ETC. DUCHY OF MODENA. The Population. Consumption is the vital element of all traffic. And if we wish to inquire into the commercial condition of a state, we must first regard its foundation in the amount of the population. According to the most recent data, the duchy of Modena contains 396,000 inhabitants, divided as follows: Province of Modena, 230,000; Reggia, 100,000; Garfagnana Estense, 30,000; Lunigiaria Estense, 14,000; Massa Carrara, 22,000; total, 396,000. Nearly one-half of the soil is jagged by the Appenines, which divide it into two districts, altogether distinct. most populous portion of the duchy, situated in the plains of Lombardy, contains 330,000 inhabitants, while the maritime provinces, ultra-Appenine, contain only 60,000. These last named provinces are comprised in the vice-consular district of Viareggio, extending from the mouth of the Magra to that of the Arno, and form the subject of the following observations. Garfagnana is mountainous and sterile. Lunigiana, which forms part of the valley of Magra, is richer in culture and products. The duchy of Massa Carrara is blessed with a sky so mild, a climate so soft, and a soil so fruitful, that it may well be said to be an abode of delights. Products. Chesnuts are the principal production of Garfagnana. In the plains of Lunigiana, and in Massa, are cultivated grain, legumes, fruits, garlick, onions, wines, and, in some parts, the mulberry. In the provinces of Massa, thick woods, entirely of oranges and lemons, forming the principal fortune of the owners, are to be found. In other parts, the * Translated from "Giornale del Lloyd Austriaco,” for the Merchants' Magazine. inhabitants are good graziers. However, the chief riches of this part of the country consist in the celebrated quarries of Carrara marble. Manufacturing and Agricultural Industry. In the duchy of Massa and its vicinity, agriculture is cultivated to the extreme point of which it is susceptible. Not a handful of soil remains uncultivated, and the laborious hand of the needy agriculturist allows neither truce or repose to the fertile glebe. Notwithstanding this, the duchy of Massa does not produce grain enough to nourish its inhabitants four months of the year. laborious peasantry of Massa are sober, patient, and indefatigable. From morn to eve they work like beasts of burden; yet, in spite of their laboriousness, they are ill clothed, ill fed, and ill housed, leading, certainly, no joyous life. The It seems, at first, surprising that this needy rural population should exist in the most fertile parts of the soil. But the surprise ceases when we contemplate the limited extent of the Massese territory, and its superabundant inhabitants. Whenever in a purely agricultural country the just equilibrium between production and consumption is destroyed, penury necessarily results. And the reason is plain. A loaf which will sustain two or three, cannot be made to support ten. This self-evident truth seems entirely overlooked by the old economists. Persuaded that the public wealth would increase with equal rapidity as the population, they turned all their attention to the means of increasing that population, never reflecting that, especially in the salubrious and fertile provinces of central Italy, land would much sooner fail the people than people the land. Pre-occupied with the present, they neither thought nor cared about the future. Hence arose dotations for the encouragement of marriage, premiums by public associations to fathers of large families; the abolition of majorities, the breaking up of large holdings, and their consequent division. into ever decreasing portions. Their peculiar system of tenancy assists the tendency to multiply families. Introduced from Tuscany into the duchy of Massa, it has produced all the results which are so visible. The population is denser than it ought to be. All the holdings are copyhold; i. e., holding from a seigneur, or lord of the manor. Few are free. Property in land is literally so reduced into fragments that an owner is often found included in the class of the miserable poor. This class is also the more extended, as the inhabitants, hoping everything from the soil, confine their labor to it, seldom resorting to other industry. The duchy of Massa is, consequently, tributary to the foreigner for all that contributes to the conveniences of life, and these it obtains from the neighboring Livorno. Its traffic is hence limited and passive. Indeed, with the exception of the sculpture of marble, the local industry has produced not a single article of exchange, so that, were it not for the resource of block marble, trade would fail for want of equivalents. Marine. The coast, though extensive, has no port. The most frequented places are Avenga and San Giuseppe. The first is nearest to Carrara, and is the place of shipment for the marble. The largest vessel does not exceed fifty tons. The marbles are carried to Livorno or Genoa, where they are transhipped in other vessels there waiting. The state of Modena has no war-marine. The commercial marine is limited to a very few vessels of various denominations. There are five of 360 tons burthen, with a crew of thirty men. This petty marine is engaged in fishing and in the coasting trade, plying between Viareggio, the mouth of the Arno, and Livorno. Occasionally a voyage is made to the Tiber, to Sicily, or to the parts opposite Genoa and Nice. No single instance has occurred of an Austrian vessel being shipwrecked on this coast Commerce by Sea. A state with so small a population, deprived altogether of artificers, can have no great means of commerce. Indeed the importations, consisting of grain, colonial produce, and manufactured goods, have no other demand than the limited local consumption. The greatest part of this merchandise comes from Livorno, a little from Geneva. Of exportation, block and worked marble form the chief bulk ; then oranges, lemons, garlick and onions. Block marble,..... 1,300,000 lira. |Oranges and lemons,...... 8,000 lira. 40,000 " Commerce by Land. Grain, wine, and other small matters, are brought from Tuscany. Oxen come principally from Genoreseto, and Parmegiano, affording an active and lucrative traffic. Fattened beasts obtain twenty to thirty dollars per head, and are brought to Livorno for the food of the inhabitants, and the provisioning of the marine. The annual import of cattle is valued at 225,000 lira, and the annual export, at 180,000. General observations. When we consider the limited extent of the coast, and the absence of accessible ports, we must allow that the duchy of Modena, from its geographical position, seems destined to occupy the lowest place among the maritime states of Italy. It is to be further observed that the nerve of the population is to be found on the plains of Lombardy, separated from the sea by the Appenines. Although, therefore, the provinces of the coast are washed by the Mediterranean, the trans-Appenine provinces are forced to have recourse to the ports of the Adriatic for its supplies from beyond sea. Modena is thus rendered tributary to the neighboring emporium of Venice, nor can it ever alter this course of trade, which ever follows the shortest and cheapest route. Livorno can only be made the place whence to supply the Modenese, in the event of a railroad being made across the Pontremoli mountains, as was proposed formerly, or across the Pitoja mountains, as is now proposed; and terminating in Lom. bardy. But the ports of the Adriatic can be also rendered more accessible by the railroads which are about to start in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. We may thus conclude that the maritime commerce of Modena, circumscribed in the province of Massa, seems susceptible of no great increase; while the commerce by land, according to all probability, will remain dependent on the bordering Lombardo-Venetian provinces. DUCHY OF LUCCA. Population. There is no state in Italy which, in proportion, is so densely peopled as Lucca. On a superficies of 320 square miles, it contains 139,000 inhabitants. The clergy, including friars, monks, and nuns, 2,130; the military, 750; engaged in civil employments, 1,270; attached to industry and commerce, 6,300; attached to the marine, 550; proprietors, 40,000; attached to agriculture, 88,000; total, 139,000. The most striking part of this statement is, that nearly the mass of the people, almost every third individual, is a proprietor. The dwindling down of the estates has here, as elsewhere, produced its inevitable result, an undue increase of the population, and both individual and collective wealth is, consequently, rather diminished than increased. The great families have lost their pos sessions. But those possessions, at first divided, and subsequently subdivided indefinitely, whom do they now profit? This question I cannot now stop to discuss. I have stated the fact solely because it proves moderation to be good in all cases. I am of opinion that the principle of constant and successive division of properties is injurious to the development of all industry, inasmuch as it impedes the increase of capital so necessary in our time. Where this is wanting, all great enterprises are impossible; and if England had the American and French law of succession, she would never have attained the eminent commercial and political post she occupies in the world at present. This, however, is not the place to treat of this question, whatever interest attaches to it; and leaving this short digression, I resume the examination of my subject. Productions. Beside the cereal productions, which do not equal the consumption, the two principal productions of the duchy of Lucca are oil and silk. Lucca oil is considered the best in all Italy, and is sought after in all the markets of Europe and America. The mulberry is carefully and successfully cultivated in the plains. The mountains are covered with forests of chesnuts, which, in great measure, serve for the food of the indigent classes. Agricultural and Manufacturing Industry. The Serchio is to Lucca what the Nile is to Egypt, in rendering the soil fertile. Owing to an extensive and well understood system of irrigation, the fields, after an ample harvest, yield a second crop. As respects agricultural industry, the duchy of Lucca is no way inferior, even to the Massese districts, which are held to be cultivated like a garden. The peasants of Lucca are not only indefatigable laborers, but are also ingenious artificers, who, when not employed with the plough or the spade, resort to sedentary employments. During the hours of rest from out-door labor, the women spin, and the men weave. The old industrial traditions are not wholly lost in the country parts. It is owing to this, that Lucca has a population somewhat in a better condition than Massa, as the latter territory has no other resource than what springs from the immediate cultivation of the fields. Thus, in the capital as in the country parts, there are various manufactories, and silk spinneries, where some 2,500 operatives are employed. The woollen manufacture is also cultivated with success, employing about 900 individuals. Beside the tissues of silk and wool, there are fustians and other coarse stuffs in linen, hemp, and cotton, for internal consumption; other manufactories, as woollen caps, paper, hats, and glass, as well as copper foundries. This is, though on a small scale, a germ which, with greater or less solicitude, and in more propitious times, will develop itself. Marine. With 6,000 inhabitants, Viareggia is the only port of Lucca, and this is only accessible to the small barks which ply the coasting trade. They carry, principally, wood, building materials, fruit, vegetables, and like articles. Vessels of more than one hundred tons are obliged to ride at large, which is very injurious to the port. Although the city has a safe and commodious anchorage, yet there are great obstacles to its obtaining any maritime and commercial importance. The smallness of the state, and its limited resources, together with the existence, in its immediate vicinity, of two large emporia, like Livorno and Genoa, are the two great obstacles to its increase. Lucca has no war-marine. Its merchant marine of all sizes numbers 190 vessels, with a tonnage of 21,000, and a crew numbering 460 indi |