THE DECENTRALISATION OF INDUSTRIES. 23 



regard to Germany she is rapidly emancipating herself 

 from her former dependence. (See Appendix F.) 



The same industrial progress extends over the 

 southern peninsulas. Who would have spoken twenty 

 years ago about Italian manufactures? And yet the 

 Turin Exhibition of 1 884 has shown it Italy ranks now 

 among the manufacturing countries. " You see every- 

 where a considerable industrial and commercial effort 

 made," wrote a French economist to the Temps. 

 " Italy aspires to go on without foreign produce. The 

 patriotic watchword is, Italy all by herself! It inspires 

 the whole mass of producers. There is not a single 

 manufacturer or tradesman, who, even in the most 

 trifling circumstances, does not do his best to emanci- 

 pate himself from foreign guardianship." The best 

 French and English patterns are imitated and improved 

 by a touch of national genius and artistic traditions. 

 Complete statistics are wanting, so that the statistical 

 Annuario resorts to indirect indications. But the rapid 

 increase of imports of coal (9,000,000 tons in 1896, as 

 against 779,000 tons in 1871) ; the growth of the mining 

 industries, which have trebled their production during 

 the last fifteen years'; the increasing production of steel 

 and machinery (nearly 3,000,000 in 1886), which 

 to use Bovio's words shows how a country having no 

 fuel nor minerals of her own can have nevertheless a 

 notable metallurgical industry ; and, finally, the growth 

 of textile industries disclosed by the net imports of raw 

 cottons and the number of spindles having nearly 

 doubled within five years * all these show that the 

 tendency towards becoming a manufacturing country 

 capable of satisfying her needs by her own manufac- 

 tures is not a mere dream. As to the efforts made for 



* The net imports of raw cotton reached 291,680 quintals in 1880, and 

 594,118 in 1885. Number of spindles 1,800,000 in 1885, as against 

 1,000,000 in 1877. The whole industry has grown up since 1859. Net 

 imports of pig-iron from 700,000 to 800,000 quintals during the five years 

 1881 to 1885. 



