524 



The 



63,020 



The 



ITALY. 



commercial navy in 1878 comprised 8,590 vessels of 1,029,157 tons, of which 152 of 



tons were steamers. 



movement of the special foreign trade from 1871 to 1878 was as follows (in lire) : 



The commercial value of the imports from and exports to the different countries in 1877 

 and 1878 was as follows : 



The value of the different articles of import 

 and export in 1878 was as follows, the transit 

 trade heing included in hoth the imports and 

 exports : 



At the close of 1877 there were 8,046 kilo- 

 metres of railroad in operation, 486 in process 

 of huilding, and 654 projected. The length of 

 telegraph lines in 1877 was 24,088 kilometres ; 



of wires, 80,596 ; of submarine cables, 178. 

 The number of stations was 1,977; of dis- 

 patches, 5,609,298, of which 5,057,789 were 

 private, 235,148 official, 105,837 service, and 

 210,524 transit dispatches. 



The number of post-offices in 1817 was 3,- 

 126; of letters and postal cards, 170,848,672; 

 of packages of printed matter and samples, 

 61,713,852 ; and of newspapers, 83,314,302. ^ 



The principal question^ before the country in 

 1879 was the abolition of the grist-tax, and in 

 connection with this the general question of 

 finance. On March 10th the report of the 

 Commission on the provisional estimates for 

 1879 was submitted to the deputies. These 

 estimates were originally prepared by the for- 

 mer Minister of Finance, Signer Seismit Doda, 

 whose anticipation of a surplus of 60,000,000 

 lire, and his intention of repealing the grist-tax, 

 were denounced in unmeasured terms during 

 the struggle for the overthrow of the Cairoli 

 Cabinet. The new Minister of Finance, Signer 

 Magliani, though calculating that the revenue 

 would yield 11,000,000 less and the expendi- 

 ture amount to 7,000,000 more than Signor 

 Seismit Doda had estimated, nevertheless ex- 

 pressed confidence in obtaining a surplus of 

 not less than 42,000,000 ; and the majority of 

 the Commission endorsed his anticipations to 

 the extent of 40,000,000. The minority of the 

 Commission, however, who were more directly 

 antagonistic to Signor Seismit Doda, considered 

 the income announced hy Signor Magliani as 

 over-estimated to the extent of 18,000,000, and 

 therefore predicted that the surplus would not 

 exceed 22,000,000. The debate on the budget 

 of revenue closed on March 28th. The Gov- 

 ernment accepted an order of the day proposed 



