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oils. The owners of the lemon and orange gardens, whose properties 

 yield them a revenue unequalled in any other branch of agriculture, are an 

 insatiable class, and just because they draw an exceptionally rich income 

 from their lands, they are covetous of still further increasing their receipts. 

 The outcry about the "crisis'' in the agrumi industry and the intrigues 

 connected with it have been so persistent that at last the Government 

 has been made to believe that such a crisis actually did exist in Sicily. 

 As a result of this imaginary crisis the free trade in citrate of lime has 

 already been put an end to (as already stated in these Reports), and the 

 article has been subjected to the monopoly of a Camera Agrumaria created 

 under exceptional laws. The result of this has been that foreign buyers 

 are now compelled to pay much higher rates for the article than would 

 prevail under natural conditions if the trade were free. Not content with 

 what they have already gained, the large landed proprietors are now 

 endeavouring likewise to bring the trade in essential oils under the control 

 of the Camera Agrumaria or of a similarly constituted monopolistic body, 

 in order to force foreign buyers to pay more for their oils and thus to 

 enable the proprietor in turn to sell his lemons and oranges at still higher 

 prices than he could obtain at present. 



With this object in view, a petition (incorrect in its main assertions 

 and founded upon exaggerated or untrue statements) was presented to the 

 Government last summer by influential persons- This petition asked for 

 the absolute monopolisation of the sale of essential oils for export. The 

 injury which would be inflicted upon the essential oil trade by the abro- 

 gation of unrestricted commerce in the article would be incalculable; 

 essential oil prices would be driven up to enormous rates by the mono- 

 poly; the vexed problem of guarding against the delivery of adulterated 

 oils would be made much more difficult still, and, in short, it would not 

 be too much to assert that the entire trade in these oils would be deviated 

 into other channels, because it is the intention of the parties interested 

 to etablish their own sale-offices in foreign countries. 



As was to be expected, these attempts at monopolisation immedia- 

 tely resulted in local counter-action on the part of all the manufacturers, 

 traders and workmen concerned in the article. All these considered that 

 their interests would be injuriously affected by the abrogation of un- 

 restricted trading in essential oils, and even a few landed proprietors of 

 intelligent opinions joined the ranks of the objectors. A strong agitation 

 developed in all the cities and in the country districts, voicing itself in 

 meetings of protest, and the strongest and most insistent representations 

 against the passing of the monopoly proposals were made to the Govern- 

 ment at Rome through the proper channels. 



It is to be regarded as a stroke of good fortune that the carrying-out 

 of the monopoly in citrate of lime had caused great difficulties to the 

 Government, not only in the details of its working, but especially in 



