STATES OF SOUTHERN EUROPE
=529. Condition of Italy in the first half of the century.=—Of the
countries of southern Europe none has gained so rapidly as Italy in the
latter part of the nineteenth century. The explanation, however, must
be sought largely in the fact that none was sunk so low as Italy in the
first part of the century. Conditions of an earlier period, described
in the previous chapter on Italy, lasted far into recent times. Here
is the description given by an English author, writing in 1878:
“Before 1848, Italy, all except Piedmont, seemed hopelessly crushed.
Austria, the Pope, and the Bourbons held her in their grasp. Even the
comparatively native sovereigns of Tuscany had turned oppressor, and
all Italy groaned like a man in the grasp of the torturer. Commerce
languished, divergent fiscal laws and arbitrary raids on private wealth
choked up the channels of intercourse between one part of the kingdom
and another; without shipping, without manufactures or foreign trade
of a solid kind, possessed of no political security, Italy was, thirty
years ago, more insignificant in the eyes of neighboring nations
than Greece or Spain is now.” In southern Italy the government was
incompetent to perform the first of its public duties, the protection
of its citizens. It could not withstand even the half-civilized
corsairs of Tripoli, who pillaged the Neapolitan ships, and finally,
long after the United States had shown the proper way to deal with such
pirates, bought from them a disgraceful peace.
=530. Lack of political and commercial union.=—The peninsula was
divided among seven independent states, so stratified as to cut the
natural lines of trade, and to prevent effectually the development of
any national commercial life. Of these states six had the protective
tariffs characteristic of the prohibitive period, and toll stations
existed even inside the frontiers. A Milan manufacturer, shipping
silks to Florence (about 1840), had to pass eight customs stations in
150 miles; a merchant on his way from Bologna to Lucca was stopped
at seven stations in the stretch of about 125 miles. Commerce would
have been in desperate straits except that all but two of the states
touched the sea, and hence could find some opening for trade. It is
noteworthy, however, that the leading commercial city of Italy in
this period was one which many people now would be puzzled to place
on the map, Leghorn. It owed its commercial importance, not to the
advantages of situation or to the productive resources of surrounding
territory; it stood, about 1900, sixth in the list of Italian ports,
and had but a fraction of the trade going to Naples or Genoa. It gained
its prosperity at this time simply by “the comparative security and
freedom” which foreigners found there, and which they were denied in
other parts of Italy.
=531. Establishment of Italian unity.=—The example of Germany, in
extricating herself from a somewhat similar situation by the formation
of customs unions, made, naturally, an impression in Italy, and led
in 1847 to an attempt there to form a similar union. The attempt was
paralyzed by the opposition of Austria, who saw in it a blow aimed at
her political influence in the peninsula. The Italian states, unlike
the German, could secure commercial union only as a result of national
unity, not as a means of preparation for it. National unity was in
preparation, nevertheless, in the brain of a great statesman, Cavour,
and was obtained through his far-sighted plans and the cooperation of
the king whom he served, Victor Emanuel, ruler of Piedmont. In the few
years following 1859 a real kingdom of Italy was established, and the
country, which for nearly fifteen hundred years had formed the prey
of rival powers, became at last a power herself, worthy to rank with
the other great states of Europe. The old barriers to internal trade
disappeared, and the whole country accepted the customs tariff of
Piedmont, which was extremely liberal. Rarely, if ever, in the history
of commerce, have changes of such sweeping importance taken place so
quickly. The tariff of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to choose
an extreme example, which levied a duty of over $2,500 on a centner
of silk goods, gave place to a tariff of United Italy, in which the
corresponding duty reached a minimum of $10.
=532. Survey of Italian commerce since 1860.=—The effect on commerce of
this great political upheaval was instantaneous. Contrasting the two
years, 1859 and 1861, we find that in this brief interval the value
of imports into Italy more than doubled. It will be convenient to
insert here figures giving the total value (exports plus imports) of
the special trade of Italy, at ten year intervals from 1860 to 1910.
Reduced to dollars and given in round figures of millions they are as
follows: 130, 320, 440, 440, 590, 1,020. The reader will note that
trade grew at a rapid rate from 1860 to 1870, and more slowly to 1880.
Then came a stoppage; in some years there was an actual decline, and
the value of exports was considerably less at the end of the decade
than at its beginning. There was a recovery in the ten years closing
in 1900, and a rapid advance thereafter. The figures show, however,
that Italian commerce advanced but slowly in the latter part of the
century, and a study of conditions at its close would show that Italy
had a commerce then far from commensurate with the country’s large
population. The average share of each Italian in the annual movement
of commerce was much less than that falling to the inhabitants of most
of the other states of Europe. Among the great states only Spain and
Russia ranked lower, in this respect.
This survey suggests the topics which demand discussion in the
following sections. We must know the reasons for the rapid development
of Italian commerce till about 1880, and for the check to progress
after that date; we want an explanation of the comparatively slight
share which the average Italian has had in the world’s commerce.
=533. Development of agriculture and commerce after 1860.=—When Italy
secured national unity, about 1860, the country was almost purely
agricultural. The ordinary trades, of course, were exercised to satisfy
local needs, and the silk manufacture had not altogether perished, but,
to use the phrase of a modern writer, though there were industries in
Italy there was no Italian industry. Restrictive taxes and tariffs
had prevented the development of any considerable manufacture. When,
therefore, comparative freedom of trade was introduced, the people made
full use of the opportunity to purchase the cheap wares of the factory
industry of other countries; they imported manufactures in increasing
amount, and paid for them by exporting their surplus agricultural
products. The railroad system, which grew from 800 to 5,000 miles
in the period 1860-1880, gave greatly improved facilities for the
marketing of wares, and affected distinctly the course of foreign
trade; the proportion of commerce carried on across the land frontier
rose in this period from a third to nearly a half of the total.
=534. Increase of customs duties; protection; tariff war.=—The Italians
realized at once the benefits of the movement which led to national
unity, but ever since they have been carrying its burdens. The expense
of the national movement was enormous, especially in view of the
poverty of the country; it weighted the government with debt, and
required a constant increase in taxes. The treasury, reaching out in
every direction for money, and forced to some fiscal devices which seem
now positively iniquitous, did not spare commerce. Duties were raised
from time to time, and a general revision of the tariff in 1878, while
it reformed some old abuses, tended still to raise the general level of
duties, and introduced a distinct element of protection. The revised
tariff, however, did not go far enough to satisfy the demands either of
the treasury or of the protectionists, and was altered again in 1887.
Commerce labored henceforth under high revenue duties, under increased
duties designed to protect Italian manufactures, and, furthermore,
under new or increased duties on agricultural products.
One disastrous result of the new tariff appeared quickly in the
outbreak of a tariff war between Italy and France. France had been
Italy’s best customer, taking at one time nearly half of her total
exports and furnishing about a quarter of her imports. Trouble between
the two countries had, however, been brewing for years; they were
following different lines in foreign politics, and the protectionists
on both sides of the frontier viewed with jealousy a commerce which
stimulated the development of international rather than national
industries. The tariff of 1887 called forth a reply in kind from
France; this was met by a rejoinder from Italy; and so the duties grew
rapidly on either side, and had soon reduced the commerce between the
countries to a small part of its former dimensions. The most important
export industries of Italy (wine, raw silk, fruits, live stock, eggs)
suffered severely, and many producers were absolutely ruined.
=535. Italian agriculture; poverty of the people.=—The course of tariff
policy explains, in large part, the check which Italian commerce had
experienced in the last decades of the century. Reasons why this
commerce was so small in proportion to the population will appear as we
review now some features of the Italian productive organization.
Few of the large states of Europe showed so large a proportion of the
people engaged in agriculture, so small a proportion in manufactures,
as were found in modern Italy. Considerably more than half the people
lived directly from the land. Not only did Italy show backwardness
in this respect; the character of Italian agriculture was itself
backward. The land was worked largely “on shares,” a system which
does not encourage improvement or stimulate efficiency. A government
commission reported in 1881 that production depended almost entirely
on mere labor, and that capital and intelligence contributed only a
minimum. Antiquated implements and wasteful and careless methods of
treating the crop, went far to nullify the natural advantages of soil
and climate. When we consider that, of the small surplus which the
agriculturist obtained, the government demanded a good share for taxes,
we can understand why the mass of the people were wretchedly poor, and
must content themselves with a bare living. It is worth noting that
about 1900 the consumption of sugar in Italy was only about six pounds
per head, less, even, than in Turkey, while in most European countries
people consumed from 20 to 50 pounds or even more. Salt itself was a
luxury, which was heavily taxed. The protective tariff appeared to
extend favors to farmers as well as to manufacturers, but the people
who gained by it were chiefly the great landlords, while the mass of
the people simply paid more for bread because of it.
=536. Manufactures.=—As agriculture was the strongest branch of
production in Italy, it was bound to suffer more than any other from
the protective tariff. Italian agriculturists did not need protection
for most of their products, and they did need the chance to market
their products in free exchange for industrial wares imported from
abroad. We have now to see what success the Italian tariff had in
building up the native industry on which the people were forced, in
large part, to rely.
Italian manufactures, in 1880, had scarcely advanced beyond the meager
beginnings which we found in 1860. Nearly all conditions were adverse.
Capital was scanty. Of important raw materials the country lacked all
but silk and hemp. Coal, the mainstay of modern manufacturing, had to
be imported at an expense which nearly doubled its price. Most serious,
perhaps, of all difficulties was the lack of a class of industrial
leaders, men of technical knowledge and business energy. We may take
as typical the case of a macaroni manufacturer in Naples, who declined
some important foreign orders, for no other reason than that he had,
as it was, enough business to make both ends meet, and saw no reason
for adding a new worry to life. The single important advantage which
Italian manufacturers enjoyed was that of cheap labor. The government
was lax in its factory legislation, and allowed employers to secure
their labor supply from women and children, at an extremely low rate.
The great development, therefore, which Italian manufacturers have
shown in the last decades of the century has been due not to any
natural fitness of the country, but solely to the tariff, which has
raised prices paid by consumers enough to counterbalance natural
disadvantages, and to attract men into manufacturing industry. The
artificial character of Italian manufactures is shown strikingly by the
fact that at the very close of the century not one of the protected
manufactures was strong enough to contribute in any considerable degree
to the exports of the country.
=537. Shipping; colonies.=—Some of the most unfortunate features of
Italian policy seem to have been the result of national vanity, of the
desire on the part of Italians, now that they had made for themselves
a great state, to make their state resemble the other great powers
in all respects. This feeling was certainly responsible in part for
their determination to build up a system of national manufactures,
regardless of expense. It led them to profuse expenditures for the
encouragement of shipping, which resulted, indeed, in a growth of the
merchant marine, but created in it merely a costly luxury. The Italian
navigation companies charged high freight rates, and included in their
fleets many antiquated vessels.
The instinct of imitation, finally, led the Italians to follow the lead
of other powers in colonial expansion. They did not escape the colonial
fever prevalent in the eighties, and spent money and lives lavishly, in
the attempt to build up a dominion on the African side of the Red Sea.
Their attempt ended in disastrous failure (Adowa, 1896), and popular
opposition to such enterprises grew so strong that the government did
not dare to carry out a later project for the establishment of an
Italian station on the coast of China (San Mun, 1899).
=538. Recent progress of Italy.=—The preceding sections have been
avowedly critical in tone, and are designed to make clear the great
gap which separates Italy from the leaders in the world’s industry and
commerce. It is important, however, that the reader should distinguish
Italy, on the other side, from such backward countries as Spain and
Portugal. Though Italy was poor it was not so poor as they, and it
offered vastly richer promises for the future. In the closing years
of the century it showed marked advances in many lines. Italian
agriculturists awakened to the possibilities of their profession; they
showed an eagerness to improve their methods, and by various forms of
association and cooperation they scored great advances. The exports of
dairy and poultry products doubled in about ten years, and became more
important than the export of wine. Italian manufacturers secured now
from natives the technical assistance for which they formerly depended
entirely on foreigners. They emancipated themselves, in part, from
coal, by their skilful management of water power, and have come to
enjoy a high reputation for electrical appliances for the transmission
of power and other purposes. The tariff has been made more liberal by
treaties with other states and by a reconciliation with France; and
commerce in the period before 1914 gave evidence of the capacity for
healthy growth.
=539. Spain.=—Spain, with an area much larger than that of Italy, and
with a population more than half as large, had in 1912 a commerce less
than half that of the Italian. The fault lay not with the country,
which in mineral resources is perhaps the richest in Europe, and which
under the skilful agriculture of the Moors was made to bloom like
a garden, but with the people who have neglected or misused their
opportunities. Spain furnishes a striking example of the evil that bad
politics can work in economic development. The personal absolutism of
the period before 1800 has been shaken off in the nineteenth century,
but experiments in constitutional government under monarchs of various
families and even under a republic, have not succeeded in bettering
conditions greatly. The mass of the people remained ignorant, and
most of their leaders were inefficient and corrupt. There can be no
wholesome economic life under these conditions. Shrewd politicians used
economic enterprises merely as a means to draw money from the public
treasury or from the pockets of consumers, while the investor or worker
without political influence was deterred from enterprise by the heavy
taxes which were heaped upon him.
=540. Spanish commerce in the first half of the century.=—A partial
reform of the Spanish colonial system toward the close of the
eighteenth century led to a growth of trade with the colonies, so
that it formed, if the figures can be trusted, a considerable part of
the total Spanish commerce, which was small at best. The promise of
commercial development inside the Spanish Empire was of short duration.
While Spain was still harassed by the Napoleonic wars, revolutions
began among the Spanish colonies on the American continent; and as
soon as they had achieved their independence they used it to trade
with states like England rather than with the country which had asked
so much of them and could offer them so little. The commerce of Spain
with other countries was hampered by the Spanish commercial policy,
which an Englishman of the time called “one of the most pernicious
and restrictive of all the systems of trading exclusion.” Duties were
levied both on imports and on exports, and included not only rates
of 50 to 100 per cent but also many absolute prohibitions. Spanish
commerce would have been starved out of existence if the government
which set these rules had not, by its inefficiency and corruption,
furnished the means of evading them. A veritable army, including, it is
said, 300,000 persons, of whom one third were armed, found its chief
occupation in smuggling; Spanish manufacturers maintained factories
only to mask the sale of contraband goods, and even members of the
government engaged in the contraband trade.
=541. Recent commerce of Spain.=—The turning-point in the recent
history of Spanish commerce came about the middle of the century, when
the worst abuses of the old tariff were shorn off. The reform was
followed by a rapid increase in the country’s trade, which grew to
more than fourfold in the forty years following. Especially noteworthy
was the increase in this period of the importation of the implements
and raw materials of industry (coal, machinery, textile fibers, etc.),
showing that Spain was at last beginning to seek a place for herself
among modern commercial nations. Such indications of progress must not,
however, blind our eyes to the fact that it was attained by a colonial
and commercial policy which retained many of the old restrictive
features. The loss of the remaining important colonies to the United
States in the war of 1898 was a severe blow to Spanish industries, and
they have been supported since then by a protective tariff which bore
heavily on many producers as well as on all the consumers in Spain. The
considerable development in mining (iron, copper, quicksilver, etc.)
has been due to foreign energy and capital, and the native Spaniards
offered as exports to other countries little more than dessert for
their dinner tables: wine, fruit, nuts, and raisins. It is noteworthy
and significant that Spain suffered seriously from the competition of
California in the sale of fruit in Europe; this most perishable of
wares, in which a nearby country ought to control the market without
effort, was packed and transported in such a slovenly fashion by the
Spaniards that a people 6,000 miles distant could excel them in the
quality they offered to the consumer in Paris or London. In the period
from 1890 to 1910 the figures showing the value of Spanish commerce
remained almost stationary.
=542. Portugal.=—In all the respects which concern a student of recent
commerce Portugal is but a miniature of Spain, with the faults of
Spain exaggerated rather than lessened by the weakness and smaller
size of the country. “It is scarcely credible, but it is nevertheless
a fact, that agriculture is nearly in the same condition as it was
some hundreds of years since”; these words of an English author would
apply now nearly as well as when they were written in 1843. Few of the
inhabitants were engaged in occupations other than agriculture; rich
mines remained unworked, and manufacturing has remained insignificant
throughout the century. After 1850 it could still be said of the
Portuguese that “their entire faith is reposed in protectionism,
monopolies, restrictions, and high duties.” Portuguese trade, nearly
ruined already, received a further blow by the separation of Brazil
about 1820; and though considerable colonial possessions in Africa and
the East were retained, the Portuguese have shown no capacity to base
on them commerce of any importance. By exports, of which wine and cork
were the most important, the Portuguese were able to satisfy their most
pressing necessities; but the backwardness of commerce can be seen when
it is realized that the trade of this country, approximately equal in
population to the Netherlands, was in 1911 less than one twentieth of
Dutch trade.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Social and economic conditions in Italy after 1800. [King, Hist.,
vol. 1, chaps. 3-5.]
2. Formation of United Italy. [Seignobos, chap. 11, middle part.]
3. Commerce of Italy about 1850. [Homans, Cyclopedia, p. 1114 ff.]
4. Burden of debt and taxes. [King and Okey, p. 270 ff., chap. 15;
Villari, chap. 4; W. Calkins, Taxation and business in Italy, Forum,
1902, 33: 333-345.]
5. Italian agriculture. [King and Okey, chap. 8; Villari, chap. 11.]
6. Life of the agricultural classes. [Phillipps, Peasants of Romagna,
Fortnightly Review, 1897, 68: 407-417.]
7. Poverty of the people. [King and Okey, chap. 6; Villari, chap. 4;
Strutt, Monthly Review, 1901, 4: August, 62 ff.]
8. Emigration. [King and Okey, chap. 17; Schuyler, Italian immigration
into the United States, Polit. Science Quarterly, 1889, 4: 480-495.]
9. Italian manufactures. [King and Okey, chap. 7: Villari, chap. 12.]
10. The Italian colonial venture. [Edwards in Westminster Review,
1897, 148: 477-489; Keller, 517-531.]
11. Recent commerce of Italy. [Statesman’s Year-Book; treat exports,
imports, countries traded with, etc., as has been already suggested.]
12. Commerce of Italy with the United States. [Luzzatti, in North
Amer. Review, 1903, 177: 247-259.]
13. Recent development of agriculture. [King and Okey, chap. 9.]
14. Political conditions in Spain. [Dillon in Contemporary Review,
1898, 73: 876-907, 74: 305-334; Foreman in National Review, 1897, 29:
721-734, 30: 547-560.]
15. Commerce of Spain about 1850. [Homans, Cyclopedia, p. 1739 ff.]
16. The recent commerce of Spain. [Statesman’s Year-Book.]
17. Resources and industries of Spain. [E. D. Jones in North Amer.
Review, 1898, 167: 39-47.]
18. Recent commerce of Portugal. [Statesman’s Year-Book; see Homans,
Cyclopedia, for conditions about 1850.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For the general history of Italy, see besides Seignobos, Bolton
King, History of Italian unity, N. Y., Scribner, 1899, 2 vols., with
bibliography. The book by the same author in collaboration with Thomas
Okey, **Italy to-day, London (N. Y., Scribner), 1901, is excellent for
recent conditions, and has a full classified bibliography. Villari,
*Italian life, N. Y., Putnam, 1902, is more popular and depends in
part on King and Okey, but still is good. Orsi’s book in Story of the
Nations Series is mainly political.
On Spain good reading in English is as scarce as on Italy it is
plentiful. Seignobos is dull, and Hume’s histories are almost entirely
political. There is, however, a good book in the series of British
Colonies and Foreign Countries, W. Webster, *Spain, London, 1882; and
Higgin, Spanish life, N. Y., Putnam, 1902, has some material of value.
The U. S. Monthly Summary, Commerce and Finance, published several
reviews of Spanish commerce at the time of the Spanish war (March,
June, 1898, April, 1899), and a considerable amount of material on
various aspects of Spain appeared about that time in the periodicals.
The close commercial relations between Portugal and England have
given rise to two excellent books on the condition of Portugal in the
nineteenth century, J. J. Forrester, *Portugal and its capabilities,
third ed., London, 1856; Oswald Crawfurd, *Portugal, old and new,
London, 1880.