A characteristic Italian industry is that of straw-plaiting for hat-making, which is carried on principally in Tuscany, in the district of Fermo, in the Alpine villages of the province of Vicenza, and in some communes of the province of Messina. The plaiting is done by country women, while the hats are made up in factories. Both plaits and hats are largely exported.
Tobacco is entirely a government monopoly; the total amount manufactured in 1902-1903 was 16,599 tons—a fairly constant figure.
The finest glass is made in Tuscany and Venetia; Venetian glass is often coloured and of artistic form.
In the various ceramic arts Italy was once unrivalled, but the ancient tradition for a long time lost its primeval impulse. The works at Vinovo, which had fame in the 18th century, came to an untimely end in 1820; those of Castelli (in the Abruzzi), Artistic industries. which have been revived, were supplanted by Charles III.’s establishment at Capodimonte, 1750, which after producing articles of surprising execution was closed before the end of the century. The first place now belongs to the Della Doccia works at Florence. Founded in 1735 by the marquis Carlo Ginori, they maintained a reputation of the very highest kind down to about 1860; but since then they have not kept pace with their younger rivals in other lands. They still, however, are commercially successful. Other cities where the ceramic industries keep their ground are Pesaro, Gubbio, Faenza (whose name long ago became the distinctive term for the finer kind of potter’s work in France, faïence), Savona and Albissola, Turin, Mondovi, Cuneo, Castellamonte, Milan, Brescia, Sassuolo, Imola, Rimini, Perugia, Castelli, &c. In all these the older styles, by which these places became famous in the 16th-18th centuries, have been revived. It is estimated that the total production of the finer wares amounts on the average to £400,000 per annum. The ruder branches of the art—the making of tiles and common wares—are pretty generally diffused.
The jeweller’s art received large encouragement in a country which had so many independent courts; but nowhere has it attained a fuller development than at Rome. A vast variety of trinkets—in coral, glass, lava, &c.—is exported from Italy, or carried away by the annual host of tourists. The copying of the paintings of the old masters is becoming an art industry of no small mercantile importance in some of the larger cities.
The production of mosaics is an industry still carried on with much success in Italy, which indeed ranks exceedingly high in the department. The great works of the Vatican are especially famous (more than 17,000 distinct tints are employed in their productions), and there are many other establishments in Rome. The Florentine mosaics are perhaps better known abroad; they are composed of larger pieces than the Roman. Those of the Venetian artists are remarkable for the boldness of their colouring. There is a tendency towards the fostering of feminine home industries—lace-making, linen-weaving, &c.
Condition of the Working Classes.—The condition of the numerous agricultural labourers (who constitute one-third of the population) is, except in some regions, hard, and in places absolutely miserable. Much light was thrown upon their position by the agricultural inquiry (inchiesta agraria) completed in 1884. The large numbers of emigrants, who are drawn chiefly from the rural classes, furnish another proof of poverty. The terms of agrarian contracts and leases (except in districts where mezzadria prevails in its essential form), are in many regions disadvantageous to the labourers, who suffer from the obligation to provide guarantees for payment of rent, for repayment of seed corn and for the division of products.
It was only at the close of the 19th century that the true cause of malaria—the conveyance of the infection by the bite of the Anopheles claviger—was discovered. This mosquito does Malaria. not as a rule enter the large towns; but low-lying coast districts and ill-drained plains are especially subject to it. Much has been done in keeping out the insects by fine wire netting placed on the windows and the doors of houses, especially in the railwaymen’s cottages. In 1902 the state took up the sale of quinine at a low price, manufacturing it at the central military pharmaceutical laboratory at Turin. Statistics show the difference produced by this measure.
| Financial Year. | Pounds of quinine sold. | Deaths by Malaria. |
| 1901-1902 | . . | 13,358 |
| 1902-1903 | 4,932 | 9,908 |
| 1903-1904 | 15,915 | 8,513 |
| 1904-1905 | 30,956 | 8,501 |
| 1905-1906 | 41,166 | 7,838 |
| 1906-1907 | 45,591 | 4,875 |
The profit made by the state, which is entirely devoted to a special fund for means against malaria, amounted in these five years to £41,759. It has been established that two 3-grain pastilles a day are a sufficient prophylactic; and the proprietors of malarious estates and contractors for public works in malarious districts are bound by law to provide sufficient quinine for their workmen, death for want of this precaution coming under the provisions of the workmen’s compensation act. Much has also been, though much remains to be, done in the way of bonificamento, i.e. proper drainage and improvement of the (generally fertile) low-lying and hitherto malarious plains.