52 THE DECENTRALISATION 



is not a single manufacturer or tradesman who, 

 even in the most trifling circumstances, does 

 not do his best to emancipate 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 indica- 

 tions. But the rapid increase of imports of coal 

 (9,339,000 tons in 1910, as against 779,000 tons 

 in 1871) ; the growth of the mining industries, 

 which have trebled their production during 

 the fifteen years, 1870 to 1885 ; the increasing 

 production of steel and machinery (4,800,000 

 hi 1900), which to use Bovio's words shows 

 how a country having no fuel nor minerals of 

 her own can have nevertheless a notable metal- 

 lurgical industry ; and, finally, the growth of 

 textile industries disclosed by the net imports 

 of raw cottons and the number of spindles* 

 all these show that the tendency towards be- 

 coming a manufacturing country capable of 

 satisfying her needs by her own manufactures 



* The net imports of raw cotton reached 1,180,000 cwts. 

 in 1885, and 4,120,000 cwts. in 1908 ; the number of spindles 

 grew from 880,000 in 1877 to 3,800,000 in 1907. The whole 

 industry has grown up since 1859. In 1910 no less than 358,200 

 tons of pig-iron and 671,000 tons of steel were produced in 

 Italy. The exports of textiles reached the following values in 

 1905-1910: Silks, from 17,800,000 to 24,794,000; cottons, 

 4,430,000 to 5,040,000 ; woollens, from 440,000 to 1,429,000. 



