SHIPPING AND NAVIGATION. Italy has a large and active merchant marine. In 1900 it num bered 409 steamers of 315.000 tons capacity. and 5665 sailing vessels of 555.000 tons. The ton nage of sailing vessels is on the decrease, while the steam tonnage is increasing, as is shown by the table below. The peninsular position of Italy fits it admirably for a commercial nation. In the medixval times, when the Oriental trade was prominent in European commercial life, the Ital ian ports attained to the first, rank. But with the decrmsing relative importance of the Alediter rancon traffic. when new trade routes were opened and new commercial fields became im portant, the Italian cities ceased to play a lead ing part in flu world's commerce, and flue Italian merchant marine is 110• inferior to that of either Germany or France.
These figures show a general decline, which was not checked until 1897. Even the increased ton nage in 1900, viz. 873.000 tons, was less than that for 1885, and was far below the I,000,000-ton mark, which was exceeded in 1878. Still, Italy does a much larger part of its own shipping than some nations having a larger maritime trade. In
the foreign steam shipping of Italy, England has the first place. carrying over 60 per cent. of the incoming and 43 per cent. of the outgoing mer chandise. Italy itself controls about 14 per cent. of the incoming and 22 per cent. of the outgoing tonnage. The remainder is distributed chiefly among Greece, Austria-Hungary, Norway, Ger many, Spain, and 1)(minark. In coastwise ship ping Italy controls about 04 per cent. of all the steamer shipping and 99 per cent. of the sailing vessel transportation. About 250,000 persons are employed in the merchant marine—an increase of about 15 per rent. in the last decade, and of about 30 per cent. in the last twenty years. Alillions of dollars have been ineffectively paid out of the 'Italian treasury in ship subsidies to ship-owners. The chief ports are Genoa, Leghorn. Naples, !Mes sina, Catania, Palermo. and Venice. Ancona and Brindisi are also well-known seaports.