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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.

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. The 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.

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It seems, at first, surprising that this needy rural population should ex ist 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 LivorIts 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.

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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,

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