Rome, the capital, is a political rather than an industrial centre. Milan, the Chicago of the kingdom, is the chief market for the crops of northern Italy and a great railway centre. It is also the market for raw silk. Genoa, the principal port, is the one at which most of the trade of the United States is landed. Naples monopolizes most of the marine traffic between Italy and Great Britain. Leghorn is famous for its manufacture and trade in straw goods. A considerable part of the grain harvested in the Po Valley is stored for shipment at Venice—not in elevators, but in pits. Palermo is the trading centre of Sicily. Most of the sulphur is shipped from Catania. Brindisi and Ancona are shipping-points for the Suez Canal route.
Spain and Portugal.—The surface of these states is too rugged and the climate too arid for any great agricultural development. Less than half the area is under cultivation; nevertheless, they are famous for several agricultural products—merino wool, wine, and fruit. The merino wool of the Iberian peninsula has no equal for fine dress goods; it is imported into almost every other country having woollen manufactures. A considerable amount of ordinary wool is grown, but not enough for home needs.
The fruit industry is an important source of income. Oranges, limes, and lemons are extensively grown for exports; among these products is the bitter orange, from which the famous liqueur curaçao, a Dutch manufacture, is made. The heavy, sweet port wine, now famous the world over, was first made prominent in the vineyards of Spain and Portugal. Malaga raisins are sold in nearly every part of England and America. The olive is more extensively cultivated than in any other state, but both the fruit and the oil are mainly consumed at home—the latter taking the place of butter. Raw silk is grown for export to France.
Although a larger part of the peninsula must depend on the American and Scandinavian forests for lumber, there is one tree product that is in demand wherever bottles are used—namely, cork. The cork is prepared from the bark of a tree (Quercus suber) commonly known as the cork oak,[73] which grows freely in the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
Metals and minerals of economic use are abundant. Iron ore is sold to Great Britain, France, and Germany. Since the Spanish-American War, however, there have been extensive developments in utilizing the coal and the ore which before that time had been sold to other countries.
The undeveloped coal and iron resources are very great, and must figure in the payment of a national debt that is near the limit of bankruptcy. The state, however, is entering a period of industrial prosperity.
The most available metal resource is quicksilver. Of this metal the mines in Almaden produce about one-half the world's supply. The working of these mines is practically a government monopoly, and the income was mortgaged for many years ahead when Spain was at war with her rebellious colonies.