FIXED OILS. 203 



provinces of Lecce and Bari. Unable to export or 

 to find any market for their produce, the proprietors 

 in many parts of those provinces let the olives lie and 

 rot upon the ground. For some years indeed the 

 price of oil scarcely paid the cost of its preparation, 

 to say nothing of transport and other necessary ex- 

 penses. During the continental system the best 

 ' chiaro, giallo y e lampante ' oil was sold at Gal- 

 lipoli for eight Neapolian ducats the salma* ; in 1816 

 and 3817 it found a ready market at from sixty to 

 seventy ducats per salma ! 



" Those who during the evil time had penetration 

 enough to foresee better days, and that a system 

 opposed to the general commercial prosperity of 

 Europe could not last, and who had at the same time 

 money enough for such objects by annually making 

 their oil as usual, and by buying up the oil of others 

 at the low current prices of the day, realized enor- 

 mous profits when peace threw open the port of 

 Gallipoli, and ships of all nations flocked thither as 

 before. 



" I have been in no part of Europe where the 

 benefits resulting from the peace were so broad and 

 tangible as here. At the end of 1816 these pro- 

 vinces had already partially recovered ; those pro- 

 prietors whom the war had left in debt were gra- 

 dually paying off their obligations; those groves 

 which had been almost abandoned were again looked 

 to as a source of wealth, and the poor peasantry 

 were restored to their ancient employment. In 

 1818 the improvement was much farther advanced, 

 and though since that period, owing to the increased 

 use of gas, the extended cultivation of rape for oil, 

 and various other circumstances, the olive oil shipped 

 at Gallipoli and other ports has declined considerably 

 in price and somewhat in quantity, it may still be 

 * The salma is equal to 42f English gallons. 



