40 



THE FISHERIES OF THE ADRIATIC. 



CHAPTER II. 



HISTORICAL.— LEGISLATION.— THE CHIOGGIOTTI. 



Historical. — State of the coast, political and economic. — Inland markets; fluctuations of the 

 trade. — Trawlers. — Statistics. — Ice. — Salt. — Italian fishermen. — Legislation. — Privileges of 

 the Italian fishermen. — Titles from which the fishing rights were derived under the Republic 

 of Venice. — Treaty between Austria and Italy. — The Chioggiotti ; their craft engaged in the 

 Austrian fisheries; proceeds of their share in the fisheries. — Count Marazzi. — Professor 

 Ninni. — Individual profit of the Chioggiotti. — Consul Revest. — Distribution of the Italian 

 fishing fleet on the Austrian coast ; value of craft and gear employed. — Total value of craft 

 and gear at Chioggia and Telestrina. — The Italian fisheries. — Italian fishing craft ; ditto 

 engaged in the Austrian fisheries ; ditto engaged in the foreign fisheries. — Value of the 

 Chioggia fisheries. — Imports and exports of fish at Venice. — Venetian fisheries. — Craft and 

 crew. 



HE Austrian fisheries partake of the character of our coast 

 fisheries and the petite pSche of the French, and they are 

 carried on in the manner and with the appliances in use 

 many centuries ago. The political condition of affairs on 

 the Adriatic shores has necessarily cast its shadow on the 

 state of the fisheries. The constant change of rulers up to 

 within the last sixty-five years impeded the organisation 

 and consolidation of the country, and no thought was given, under such 

 circumstances, to the regulation of fisheries, or to other economical measures - 

 of still greater importance. Even the long period of peace which followed 

 the Treaty of Vienna, by which the Dalmatian coast, increased by Ragusa, 

 once more reverted to Austria, proved of small avail to the newly-acquired 

 provinces ; there was a total want of union and consciousness of identity of 

 interests with the rest of the Empire. 



On account of its poverty, the country was looked upon in the light 



