NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 



81 



NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE, 



\l-n-\li IX. |.-.mf l( ,.lcZ.) 

 rOBBION PBODCCK: EUKOPE. 



Production* o.' Franco and Italjr Danubian Bafioa Holland and 

 Belgium Germany. 



Mediterranean Seaboard. 



iico, like England, is a manu- 

 facturing naiiuii, importing raw materials and m-nd 

 <iut iini.-hod goods. Nevertheless, it is tho chief \\iue 

 country, and product's beet sugar in abundance, i 

 :i surplus of corn, madder, and fruits for export, as well 

 my millions of eggs. Tho mulberry trees that 

 a largo part of tho southern provinces are the 

 of an important branch of national industry. 

 Although the quantity of silk does not equal that of 

 Italy, yet the silk fabrics of Franco have hitherto been 

 lied. Iron and coal, lead and zinc, are amongst 

 the minerals of the south of Franco, iron being specially 

 abundant in the Pyrenean districts. France, washed by 

 three MM, is admirably placed for interchange, which, 

 during the reign of Napoleon III., had more than 

 quadrupled in value and extent. 



Italy is naturally a land of abundance. It is also tho 

 chid' silk-producing country of Europe. It yields tho 

 lives and olive oil, straw for plaiting Tuscan and 

 Leghorn plait, being universally admired sumach and 

 bark for tanning, a fine hemp fibre, and fruits like those 

 of Spain. A large proportion of the people, however, 

 lack the necessaries, not to speak of the comforts of life, 

 and those who sow and reap her bountiful harvests are 

 often without bread. Many parts of great beauty and 

 fertility are unhealthy, and districts once crowded are 

 now deserted, owing to pestilential malaria. 



The mineral resources of Italy, though vast, are to 

 a <rroat extent undeveloped. They comprise marbles, 

 alabaster, serpentines, boracic acid, sulphur, rock salt, 

 various ores, as those of copper, iron, lead, silver, mer- 

 cury, and antimony, together -with mineral fuel and oils. 



Fisheries. The Mediterranean sea-board, both of 

 France and Italy, is notable for its fisheries. The 

 delicate anchovy, preserved in salt, and the sardine, 

 preserved in oil, are exported in large quantities. Tho 

 sea enclosed by Naples, Sicily, and the islands westward, 

 is the chief scene of the tunny fishery. This fish, sought 

 for its oil as well as for food, represents the mackerel of 

 the British seas, as the anchovy and sardine represent 

 the herring tribe. Along the Barbary coast and off 

 some parts of Italy, French and Italian dredgers engage 

 in the so-called fishery for coral (Corallium rubrum). 

 Only in these parts is this dense and beautiful but brittle 

 product found in abundance, employing not only the 

 dredgers, but the lapidaries of Marseilles, Genoa, and 

 Naples, by whom its beauties are so developed that its 

 value often increases to double that of gold, giving rise 

 to interchange with Persia, China, and the most distant 

 countries. 



Tho cutting of cameos in imitation of the ancient 

 onyx is an industry allied to that of the coral, and 

 carried on in the same towns. It is provided for by the 

 prevalence of beautiful gasteropod shells, such as the wing 

 shells used in our own country for decorative purposes. 



Region of tlie Danube. The Alps send out eastern 

 spurs, with glacier scenery and yawning abysses only 

 next to the main range in grandeur. These spurs, with 

 the still more rugged Carpathians and the Turkish 

 Balkans, give a general mountainous aspect to this 

 region, modified by tho corn plains and grazing grounds 

 of Hungary and tho marshes of the Lower Danube. 

 Spring clothes the meadows in green, amidst which 

 the daffodil, narcissus, and other liliaceous bulbs grow 

 in wild, native vigour, while sheep and cattle find a rich 

 sustenance, and add greatly to the wealth of the land. 



110-N.K. 



The Danube flow* through countries less advanced 

 than Franco and England, and thi-ir condition reflect 

 itself in their produce. Tho surplus for interchange 

 consists almost wholly of raw material*. Nearly a 

 fourth nurt of Austria, and probably a large propor- 

 tion of Turkey, aro in loie-i, where many of the 

 timber trees reach their most perfect ntute. The oak 

 abounds, productive of gull nut, of valonia for dyeing 

 an.l tuiii.n/, and of a hvroct acorn flavoured like tho 



nut. 



The forests of the Austrian empire are attendant 

 upon inexhaustible mine-, lor though the coal-fields, 

 both of the Hungarian and German provinces, are far 

 from inconsiderable, either in point of area or produce, 

 yet the quality of the coal is bad, and wood is much used 

 in smelting. The mines have been worked from the time 

 of tho Romans, but never extensively, and little impres- 

 sion appears to have been made upon the mineral 

 stores. Iron is found in nearly all parts of the empire, 

 especially in Bohemia, Moravia, ana the other German 

 provinces. Some of the mountains are a pure carbonate 

 of iron, requiring to be quarried rather than mined, and 

 native steel of the highest excellence is found in Styria. 

 Tho richest European mines of quicksilver, next to those 

 of Spain, are met with in Idria, in tho province of Car- 

 niola, Austrian Germany. An old proverb says of three 

 Hungarian towns, in allusion to the richness of their 

 mines, that one (Neusohl) is enclosed in walls of copper, 

 another (Schemnitz) in walls of silver, and tho third 

 (Kremnitz) in walls of gold. 



Wool, silk, and metals are the chief raw substances 

 exported by Austria, whose unwise policy in restricting 

 commerce, with the view of keeping her produce for 

 home consumption, has resulted in the discouragement 

 of industry, hindrance to the increase of wealth, and the 

 promotion of extensive smuggling. 



Turkey and Greece produce, besides silk, madder, figs, 

 raisins, valonia, and olive oil, some substances more 

 especially their own, as opium, cotton, drugs, and sponge. 

 The fisheries of this last assume, in the ^Egean Sea, the 

 place of the Italian coral fishery. Strewn over the rocky 

 floor of the clear water where the Cyclades repose, 

 sponge cups abound, soft, elastic, absorbent, and free 

 from spicules of Hint or lime. Those obtained from the 

 coast of Candia (Crete) are of the finest description, and 

 under the name of Smyrna, or Turkey, or Greek sponges, 

 command the highest price in the market. 



Alpine Ridge. The climate and soil of this dividing 

 line are unfavourable to animal and vegetable produce, 

 and nothing economically important characterises it. 

 The mountains, as their geological structure indicates, 

 are deficient in metals and useful minerals. The Swiss 

 are, nevertheless, well clothed and fed; while Italy, with, 

 which Switzerland so strongly contrasts, depends upon. 

 foreign industry for the scanty supplies of half her popu- 

 lation. 



Northern Slope. While the olive and orange flourish 

 only in the lower latitudes of this favoured zone, the 

 vine reappears on the northern slopes, and furnishes 

 many of the finest wines. The climate and soil are 

 iqually favourable for the cereals and fcr the rearing of 

 domestic animals. 



Zone of Wheat and Northern Grains. 



Seer and Butter Countries. The designation of the 

 ' wine and oil countries " contrasts with that of the next 

 liighcr zone, whose distinctive produce has gained for it 

 the appellation of the Beer and Butter Countries. The 

 iwo descriptive beverages aro linked by the cider, 

 common for some distance on both sides of the line of 

 division. The production of cider, beer, and butter 

 indicates essential differences in climate, soil, and other 

 physical conditions, from the zone of wine and oil. The 

 shades of change upon the face of Nature are. very 



