45 S The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



this he had to collect halfpenny by halfpenny from the 

 fishermen. 



Mr. Herries, in a report of 1868 on the industrial con- 

 dition of Italy, stated that there were then 365 boats 

 employed in the coral fishery, of which 267 belonged to 

 Naples, and the rest to Leghorn and other places on the 

 Genoese coasts. These boats employed 2699 men and 

 boys. The value of the produce ranged from ^280 to 

 £Z20 for each boat during the season. 



About 160 tons of coral are annually brought into Italy, 

 and the articles made of coral, exported, are valued at 

 nearly ^^500,000. 



At the Maritime Exhibition held at Naples in 1871, the 

 following statistics were published respecting the Italian 

 coral fishery : — 



No. of boats. 



Torre del Greco ... ... ... 300 



Leghorn ... ... ... ... 60 



Liguria and Sardinia ... ... ... 100 



460 



The value of the large boats w^as £160, and of the 

 smaller ones £So\ the collective capital, 1,000. There 

 were from 6 to 12 men employed in each boat, making a 

 total of about 4000. The wages paid was about i^8o,ooo, 

 and the provisions came to half as much more. The coral 

 fishery gave employment to some 6000 persons. Each 

 boat, in order to defray the necessary expenses dis- 

 bursed for outfit, provisions, wages, etc., ought to obtain 

 200 kilogrammes of coral, which, at an average of £2 Ss. 

 the kilogramme, would yield £4.^0. The coral received in 

 the kingdom of Italy was stated to amount to 160,000 

 kilogrammes, worth about ^380,000. 



The shops working on coral were stated to be — at Torre 



