The most distinctive natural product of Italy is SILK, and the amount
of raw and thrown silk exported is about $57,500,000 annually. Silk
culture is carried on all over the kingdom, though the industry
flourishes most extensively in Piedmont and Lombardy, in the north.
Over 550,000 people are engaged in rearing silkworms, and the annual
cocoon harvest approximates 100,000,000 pounds. Silk-"throwing,"
or-spinning, is the principal manufacturing industry, and the amount
of silk spun and exported is about 45,000 tons, most of which goes to
France. After silk the products of the country that constitute the
principal exports are OLIVE OIL, FRUIT (oranges, lemons, grapes,
almonds, figs, dates, and pistachio nuts), and WINE (in casks). The
olive-oil export and the fruit export are each about a fifth of the
export of silk, and the wine export about a sixth. Other important and
characteristic exports are raw hemp and flax, sulphur, eggs,
manufactured coral, woods and roots used for dyeing and tanning, rice,
marble, and straw-plaiting. The principal import is WHEAT, for
agriculture, though generally pursued, is still in a backward state
of efficiency, and the average grain crop is only one third what it is
in Great Britain. One eighth the total amount of wheat needed to
support the people has to be imported. In fact, the total amount of
food-stuffs raised in the kingdom is much less than the amount
required, being, for example, per inhabitant, not more than one half
of what is raised in France. In particular, there is a deficiency of
meat, and the amount of meat raised per inhabitant is the lowest in
Europe. As a consequence the Italians are poorly fed, and it is
estimated that four per cent. of the annual death loss is occasioned
by impoverishment of blood due to insufficiency of wholesome food.
After wheat and raw cotton, the next principal import is COAL, for
Italy has no workable coal-fields. As far as possible water power is
used as a motive power instead of coal, especially in the iron
industries. An important import also is FISH, for, owing to the great
number of fast days which the Italian people observe, and to the
dearness and scarcity of meat, fish is a very general article of
consumption. Six million dollars' worth is imported annually, and
perhaps an equal amount is obtained from local fisheries, for there
are over 22,000 vessels and boats and over 70,000 men engaged in this
industry. After silk-throwing, the most characteristic Italian
manufacturing industries are those which are of an artistic or
semi-artistic nature, such as the making of fine earthenware,
porcelain, glassware, mosaics, and lace. VENICE (154,000) and GENOA
(225,000) are still the principal seaports and trade centres of Italy,
but in commercial importance these famous cities are only the mere
shadows of what they once were. NAPLES (529,000), the largest city, is
a place of little enterprise, for its imports, principally cereals,
are three or four times the value of its exports, which are mainly
cheap country produce. MILAN (457,000) and TURIN (348,000) are the
great trade centres of the north interior, and the most prosperous
places in the kingdom, being the chief seats of the silk-throwing
industry. Milan is also the chief seat of the Italian cutlery
manufacture. PALERMO (284,000) and MESSINA (150,000), in Sicily, are
the chief ports for the export of Italian fruits, and also of Italian
fish (anchovies, tunnies, etc.). ROME (474,000) and FLORENCE (207,000)
owe their chief importance to their art interest and to their historic
associations, but Florence has an important manufacture of fine
earthenware and mosaics. Rome is the chief seat of government. CATANIA
(127,000), in Sicily, is the chief seat of the Italian sulphur export
trade. LEGHORN (104,000), the port of Florence, is the chief seat of
the export straw-plaiting trade. It should be noted that
notwithstanding Italy's extent of coast-line a large part of her
foreign commerce is transacted northward by means of the railways that
tunnel the Alps.
[Illustration: Italy and its chief commercial centres.]