344 



ITALY. 



Commerce. The value of the special imports of 

 merchandise in 1897 was 1,192,100,000 lire, and of 

 exports 1,092,700,000 lire. The imports of precious 

 metals were 8,700,000 lire, and the exports 23,100,- 

 000 lire. 



Navigation. The merchant marine m 3 

 comprised 851 steamers, of 237,727 tons, and 6,002 

 sailing vessels, of 527,554 tons. 



Communications. There were 9,714 miles of 

 railroad in operation on Jan. 1, 1898. The telegraphs 

 on July 1, 1896, had 27,100 miles of line, with 99,612 

 miles of wire. There were 7,616,658 internal, 1,937,- 

 482 international, 352,731 service, and 126,413 tran- 

 sit messages transmitted in 1896. 



Session of the Chamber.^The Chamber reas- 

 sembled on Jan. 25 and elected Signer Bianchen 

 president in the place of Signor Zanardelli, who 

 had been appointed Minister of Justice. The reduc- 

 tion of the wheat duty was approved by 198 votes 

 to 37. The question of reorganizing the state 

 banks, which were loaded down with real estate, 

 taken under foreclosure at the time of the late 

 financial crisis, and had not metallic reserves suf- 

 ficient to secure the bank-note circulation, was the 

 next thing to occupy the attention of the Chamber. 

 Minister Luzzati stated that the Bank of Naples was 

 solvent, but must have twenty years to realize on 

 its assets. The relations of Francesco Crispi to the 

 Bologna branch was investigated by a commission, 

 which reported on March 18 that there was no law 

 permitting the impeachment of the ex-Premier, as 

 his acts did not constitute a crime in common law, 

 but that these, nevertheless, were deserving of the 

 censure of the Chamber. He had received 500,000 

 lire, which he professed to have used for the secret 

 service, that Luigi Favilla,the director of the branch, 

 had embezzled ; but there was no evidence that he 

 was a knowing party to the defalcation. He had 

 committed irregularities, not only in obtaining the 

 money from the chartered bank, but in repaying 

 the advances partly with money furnished by a po- 

 litical supporter and partly with police funds ap- 

 propriated for the suppression of the Sicilian dis- 

 turbances, and also by interfering repeatedly to 

 prevent the examination of the condition of the Bo- 

 logna branch bank and the prosecution of his friend 

 Pavilla. Signor Costa, the late Minister of Justice, 

 had on his part sought to strain the law, and coerce 

 the tribunals in order to secure Crispi's conviction 

 as a common criminal. The report of the commission 

 was approved by 207 votes to 7, Crispi's own friends 

 to the number of 65 not voting. The ministry pro- 

 posed to extend a state guarantee to the provincial 

 and communal debts, amounting to 1,000,000,000 

 lire, so as to enable them to be converted from 5-per- 

 cent, to 3J- or 4-per-cent. loans. The project was 

 opposed as endangering the financial stability of the 

 Government and affording opportunities for parlia- 

 mentary corruption, but the Finance Minister got 

 a bill passed establishing a separate department of 

 the State Loan and Deposit Bank in order to facili- 

 tate the conversion of such loans as have been con- 

 tracted at unreasonable rates of interest. The Cham- 

 ber accorded to the Minister of Marine the right 

 to sell the cruisers " Varese" and " Garibaldi," but 

 only the votes of the Republican Deputies saved 

 the Cabinet from a defeat on this question. 



Brend Riots. Owing to the rise in the price of 

 bread, riots, incited by anarchist agitators, occurred 

 during January, 1898, in Ancona and other towns in 

 the Marches. The Government took severe military 

 measures of repression, and proposed at the same 

 time concessions for the relief of distress and a bill 

 for the reform of public safety. The stringent pro- 

 visions of this bill provoked so much criticism that 

 it was withdrawn. A royal decree was issued on 

 Jan. 24 reducing till April 30 the import duty on 



grain from 7^ lire a quintal to 5 lire. The peace 

 footing of the army, instead of being reduced in the 

 winter to 140,000 men, was on account of the un- 

 settled state of the country kept up to 180,000 men. 

 A Radical Socialist mass meeting in favor of the 

 total abolition of the duty on breadstuffs was not 

 only forbidden to be held, but the streets of Rome 

 were patrolled by eight battalions of infantry to 

 prevent any demonstration. The Government 

 promised to start public works and to remit the 

 most onerous of the taxes for the alleviation of the 

 general misery. On Feb. 18 the troops fired on a 

 mob of bread rioters at Stroina in Sicily, killing two 

 peasants. 



When the Chamber voted 100,000 lire to aid the 

 poor the King gave 150,000 lire. Toward the end 

 of April, when bread mounted to a famine price, 

 collisions took place between the carabinien and 

 the populace at Bari, Rimini, Parma, Ravenna, and 

 other places, and quiet was only temporarily restored 

 when the price was reduced to 35 centimes a kilo- 

 gramme by the public authorities. Rioting occurred 

 on May 2 at Faenza, Bari, and Foggia, and in Nea- 

 politan districts and at Ravenna and Leghorn mani- 

 festations of discontent. The municipal authorities 

 promised to reduce the price of bread at the public 

 expense, and the Government gave a pledge that 

 railroad rates should be lowered. Three classes of 

 reserves of the carabinieri were summoned to the 

 colors. On May 3 the troops fired on the people at 

 Piacenza and Bagnacaballo. After more demon- 

 strations at Palermo, Florence, Leghorn, and other 

 places the Government on May 4 decreed the entire 

 suspension of the duty on wheat. The octrois were 

 also abolished. These tardy concessions, granted 

 only to stop dangerous tumults, only emboldened 

 the revolutionary spirits. On May 5 several thou- 

 sand rioters disputed the possession of the streets in 

 Pavia with the police and troops, many of whom 

 were injured before they fired, killing a son of 

 Signor Mussi, the Radical Vice-President of the 

 Chamber. Barricades were erected and wires 

 stretched across the streets to stop cavalry. At 

 Leghorn also the disturbers could not be driven 

 away by several charges of the military, and at 

 Sesto Florentine the soldiers, after being stoned 

 severely, fired a volley, killing four rioters. The 

 disturbances extended throughout the southern 

 and central parts of Italy. The people coupled 

 their demand for bread with the cry for social 

 revolution. The riots assumed, more and more, a 

 political character. 



Disturbances at Milan, which began on May 6, 

 became an insurrection. The trouble began with 

 the rescue of a man who was arrested for distribut- 

 ing Socialist leaflets in a great rubber factory. The 

 rescuers were set at liberty through the intercession 

 of Socialist Deputies. Nevertheless, soldiers who 

 were sent to guard the works were stoned, and 

 these, after first firing in the air, discharged a 

 volley into the crowd, killing 2 and wounding 

 12. On the morning of May 7 the workmen of 

 the factory. 2,000 in number, struck work, were 

 joined by the men of the other factories of the city, 

 and began rioting simultaneously at several points. 

 The street cars were overturned to form, with 

 other material, no fewer than 17 barricades. 

 Telegraph wires were cut and strung across the 

 streets to impede cavalry charges. Breaking into 

 palaces and other large buildings, rioters mounted 

 to the roofs and hurled down tiles and stones upon 

 the soldiers until sharpshooters were posted on 

 higher roofs to pick off the stone-throwers. Soldiers 

 were fired upon from behind window blinds, and 

 they lined up and fired at the windows and into the 

 crowds, killing a great number of persons. At one 

 of the gates the troops had to fight thousands of 



