While the silk industry has considerable natural facilities in the proximity of large supplies of raw material, the cotton industry, with which it may be compared, is without any such advantage, the production of raw cotton in Italy being negligible. Until 1887, Italy imported large quantities of cotton goods, but, when a highly protective tariff was imposed in that year, many of those Swiss manufacturers who had hitherto supplied the Italian market built additional mills in Italy, and thus gave a great impetus to the industry in that country. With the lapse of time the proportion of Swiss-owned to Italian-owned mills has fallen, and the cotton industry may now be regarded as naturalised. At present there are about 4,500,000 spindles and 110,000 power-looms in the country, and these are chiefly found in the region under considera tion, more especially in Lombardy and Piedmont, where electric power is frequently used for driving the machinery. The greater part of the raw material consumed in the mills comes from the United States, the remainder being supplied by India and Egypt. The yarns which are produced tend on the whole to be coarse, but the quality is steadily improving ; while woven goods, besides supplying almost entirely the home demand, find a ready market in the Levant and in South America, where the large Italian popu lation in Brazil and the Argentine prefers to have materials of a kind to which it has been accustomed.
Woollen goods are in considerable demand in North Italy, as the winters are cold ; and they are manufactured in various places, but more especially at Biella in Novara, where over 25,000 people are engaged in the industry. A considerable amount of cotton is,
however, used along with the wool in the manufactures of this town.
The development of metallurgical work is due rather to the general industrial movement which is taking place than to any direct advantage of a geographical nature. Although some iron ore is found and worked in the Alpine valleys, the most of that which is used comes either from other parts of Italy or from abroad. At present, the chief establishments connected with the manufacture of iron and steel goods are situated in the larger towns and at the ports. Milan turns out locomotives, wagons, and electric machinery ; Turin makes railway stock, and especially wagons. There are large engineering works at Pont-Saint-Martin in the Val di Aosta, and at Udine ; and Venice is engaged in shipbuilding.
Among other industries which may be mentioned is the manu facture of chemical manures, mainly superphosphates, at various towns throughout the region ; of calcium carbide at Pont-Saint Martin and other places where water-power is obtainable ; of glass at Murano ; of lace in Venice and the neighbouring islands ; of straw hats at Marostica, near Bassano ; and of arms at Bologna. PENINSULAR ITALY.—Although the general character of cultivation and economic development remain much the same throughout the whole of peninsular Italy, the differences in structure, topography, and climate, which have already been noted, make it possible to distinguish a number of regions each with its own characteristics.