ITALY. 



413 



)8, 000, 000. The budget for 1884 was as 

 )llows: 



REVENUE. H re . 



Revenues of the Government 24,304,705 



Direct taxes 889,474,380 



Dues and stamp-tax 182,550,000 



Customs, liquors, tobacco, and salt 5-24,2-24,245 



Lottery 72,502,000 



Post-Office, telegraphs, and railroads 123,350,185 



Sundries 25,811,258 



Jients and interests 220,758,342 



Total 1,562,975,065 



EXPENDITURE. Lire. 



Treasury 736,465,978 



Finance 174,916,298 



Justice 83,451.637 



Foreign Affairs 7,213,737 



Public Instruction 82,427,541 



Interior 64,060,550 



Public Works 184,659,008 



War 252,867,367 



Navy 57,64S,549 



Agriculture 11,966,104 



Total 1 ,555,676,829 



There were outstanding, Sept. 30, 1884, 255,- 

 344,600 lire in treasury notes, the circulation 

 being greater by 10,936,500 than on June 30 

 of the same year. 



The Government having resumed the tobacco 

 monopoly from the Tobacco Regie Company, 

 and having to pay it 68,000,000 lire for to- 

 bacco, etc., a loan was made at 3*60 per cent., 

 payment to be made on April 1, 1885, instead 

 of on Dec. 31, 1885, a saving of 1*40 per cent., 

 as the Tobacco Re"gie Company was being cred- 

 ited interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per an- 

 num. A 100,000,000 lire loan having been 

 voted by the Chamber in December, 1884, and 

 the bill also having passed the Senate on Jan. 

 11, 1885, for the sanitary improvement of 

 Naples, and certain public works to be there 

 undertaken for the same purpose, it was pro- 

 posed to place on the market 5 per cent, bonds, 

 to run sixty years, dating from January, 1886, 

 and to be gradually paid off by a sinking fund. 



During the first ten months of 1884, the 

 movement of the precious metals in lire was as 

 follows: 



Agricultural Credit Reform, A bill was intro- 

 duced in the Italian Parliament, toward the 

 close of 1884, abrogating the law of June 21, 

 1869, and remodeling the basis on which money 

 may be loaned by agricultural credit banks to 

 farmers. Under the old law, the proprietor of 

 the soil enjoyed superior privileges as a mort- 

 gage holder, if his tenant stood in need of 

 money. The new law concedes first mortgage 

 to the proprietor on the land and crops, but 



not on the cattle on which the credit-bank is to 

 have secured a first mortgage. The loans will 

 have to be made for at least three years, but 

 not to exceed thirty years, nor the interest 5 

 per cent. 



Army. The standing army nuinbers 750,765 

 men and officers; the militia mobile, 341,250 

 men and officers; the reserve, 5,281, and the 

 territorial militia, 1,021,954 constituting a 

 joint force, in time of peace, of 2,119,250 men. 

 In time of war Italy can place in the field 690,- 

 000 men of the line; 300,000 militia mobile, 

 and 1,000,000 territorial militia together, 

 1,990,000 soldiers. 



tfavy. There were launched in August, at 

 Castellamare, the ironclad Ruggiero di Lau- 

 ria, and in December the ironclad Francesco 

 Morosini; to be followed in March, 1885, 

 by the Andrea Doria three line-of-battle 

 steamers of the first class, built after the 

 Acton model ; and there were building in the 

 spring of 1885 the Italia and the Lepanto. 

 When these formidable men-of-war are all 

 afloat, Italy will have 15 vessels of the first 

 class, 10 of them ironclad; 14 second class; 

 13 third class; 11 transports, and 43 torpedoes. 

 The Ruggiero di Lauria cost, with arma- 

 ment, 19,000,000 lire or francs; the Duilio 

 as much; and the Lepanto, the Italia, and 

 the Dandolo, when armed, will cost between 

 22,000,000 and 24,000,000 each. The Duilio 

 is to carry four 100-ton guns. Out of the 

 10,802 sailors and marines, and 567 officers, 

 by whom the Italian navy is manned, there 

 will be doing active service on board ship in 

 1885, 396 officers and 9,028 men, a proportion 

 unknown in any other navy. A novel ar- 

 rangement is the having in readiness so-called 

 "reserve ships," to sail at forty-eight hours' 

 notice. The navy was commanded and offi- 

 cered on Jan. 1, 1885, as follows: one admiral, 

 Prince Carignano; 4 vice-admirals, 10 rear- 

 admirals, 104 captains, and 362 lieutenants; 

 10,300 sailors, and 1,987 gunners, men for tor- 

 pedo service, and engineers. 



The Red Sea Expedition. For several years 

 there has been rivalry between the Italians, 

 French, and Egyptians, to secure the trade be- 

 tween their possessions on the Red Sea coast 

 of eastern Africa, and Abyssinia and the 

 Galla countries. The Italians have acquired 

 a settlement at Assab, and the French farther 

 south at Abok. Both settlements are poor, 

 the coast being a complete desert, while the 

 flourishing countries inland, especially Shoa, 

 are difficult and expensive to reach, the freight 

 on camels' backs being very high, and trans- 

 portation, a distance of 400 miles, very slow, 

 so that it sometimes takes months to reach a 

 market from Assab. Valueless as the latter is 

 as a settlement, it has, nevertheless, been re- 

 tained, because during the colonization mania 

 that has seized upon the French and Germans, 

 Italy, without any other colony, considers it in 

 her political rather than commercial interest 

 to obtain a firm foothold somewhere near the 



