io 4 6 ITALY 



disposal of the Ministries of War and Marine respectively by the Minister of Finance dur- 

 ing the campaign were 15,440,000 and 2,880,000, but about 4,000,000 of this expenditure 

 was devoted to the replenishment and accumulation of stores and for repairs in dockyards: 

 so that the cost was just under 1,000,000 lire (40,000) per diem. On the other hand, there 

 remain to be paid (a) the annual contribution of at least 80,000 representing the loss to 

 the Ottoman treasury of the revenue from Tripoli (by Article X of the treaty of Lausanne 

 Turkey may ask for this to be capitalized at 4%, thus converting it into a single payment 

 of 2,000,000), (b) the cost of disbandment and repatriation of the greater part of the troops 

 in Libya. The cost of the war was met by the creation of five year 4% Exchequer bonds 

 for over 16,800,000, whereas the floating debt outstanding on June 30, 1911, was about 

 4,320,000. During the war Italian consols, paying only 3^ per cent (since January I, 

 1912) fell from 104 to 94 (on October 31, 1912, they had recovered to 98 on the Rome 

 bourse, though only quoted at 94-96 in London), and the exchange on London has hardly 

 been higher than 25.60 lire. 



During the year from October I, 1911, to September 30, 1912 (which almost exactly 

 covers the duration of the war) the total receipts of the Italian exchequer amounted to 

 125,640,000, and the expenditure to 117,040,000, showing increases respectively of 

 8,280,000 and 4,280,000 over the preceding 12 months. 1 The improvement in the yield 

 of taxation was greater than the average advance during the preceding five years. The 

 principal direct and indirect taxes (exclusive of the import duty on grain) and the Post 

 Office revenue yielded 79,800,000 (as against 78,640,000 for 1911): the gross receipts of 

 the railways, in the year ending June 30, 1911, were 19,920,000 (16,240,000 in 1906-7), 

 while the improvement between October i, 1911, and September 10, 1912, as against the 

 corresponding ilf months of 1910-11, amounted to 1,480,000. Of this increase 320,000 

 were due to the additional charges for the benefit of the sufferers by the Sicilian earthquake 

 of December 1908, so that the net advance was still 240,000 in excess of the average growth 

 between the years 1906-7 and 1910-11. 



The service of debt still represents a large proportion of Italian expenditure, in spite of 

 the reduction of the interest to 3! per cent on Consols. In 1910 the total amount of debt 

 was 523,116,074 (exclusive of State bonds held by or to be repaid to the State), and the 

 amount paid in interest 20,169,871, of which only about 12 per cent was paid abroad, the 

 rest being held by home investors. 



The cost of the earthquake of December 28, 1908, to the State was covered in four 

 years by the surplus in the budgets and by additional taxes of 2 per cent on business, of 5c 

 or loc on railway tickets, etc. Beyond this, however, there were of course large subscrip- 

 tions raised. These were in the main paid in to an autonomous Central Committee, which 

 has never published detailed accounts. Besides this, various Italian organisations and 

 foreign countries raised funds which they administered independently, though in consulta- 

 tion with the Italian authorities: thus the last half of the British Mansion House Fund 

 (which amounted to about 140,000 in all) was administered by the British Embassy. 



Railways, etc. On November I, 1912, a new arrangement of the administration of 

 the State Railways came into existence; the branches into which it is divided are: traffic, 

 locomotives, rolling stock, works department (combining the functions of the engineer and 

 superintendent of the line), health department, solicitors' department, accountants' depart- 

 ment. No new lines of any importance have beeen opened since 1908, except a line from 

 Bassano to the Austrian frontier, providing a new route to Trent; but a certairt amount of 

 doubling of existing lines has been done, and the construction of complementary lines in 

 Sicily has been begun. The capital value of the railways on June 30, 1911, was estimated 

 approximately to be 259,500,000, and the profits were calculated at nearly six millions, or 

 2.31 per cent on the capital; but this included (a) the actual profit paid over to the treasury 

 about 1,520,000, (b) the taxes on tickets, on the wages of the personnel, etc., (c) the 

 interest and extinction of some paid by the treasury to the companies which worked the 

 railways until 1906 about 2,300,000. 



The State Railways have considerably improved in every way. A direct electric line 

 from Rome to Naples (about I2om.) is in course of construction. Electric power has been 

 extended to the line between Genoa and Busalla, and will be applied to the line from Savona 

 to S. Giuseppe di Cario, in the line to Turin. Besides the ferry boats crossing the Straits 

 of Messina, the State Railways now work fast ships from Naples to Palermo and Civita- 

 vecchia to Golfo Aranci in Sardinia. 



The length of steam and electric tramways (including city tramways) has increased fairly 

 rapidly; at the end of 191 1 it was 3,018 m. Motor omnibus services on the highroads carry- 

 ing mails and passengers are increasing very rapidly in numbers, covering nearly 2,000 m. 

 of roads. They receive a subvention from the government and from communes. 



Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones. The number of post offices (including over 700 collect- 

 ing officers) was 10,238 in 1910. The number of State telegraph offices has risen to 5,033, 



'This period does not correspond with the Italian financial year (July 1st to June 3Oth), 

 nor the balance with that of the ordinary financial returns (above). It is probable that 

 some of the extra war receipts and expenditure are reckoned on both sides of the account. 



