The largest manufactures of woollens, both cloth and other kinds, are established in Mo ravia and Bohemia. These products in both countries are said to be as much distinguished for their excellence as their variety. In the other parts of the empire, where this branch of industry is proportionably pushed to a much less extent, the principal articles manu factured are of middling and ea:arse quality, whilst the finer sorts, so far as their domestic consumption requires it, are of Moravian and Bohemian fabric. Considerable quantities c the latter are exported to foreign parts. Th woollen manufacture employs at least 320,00 Austrian hands ; and the crown has given small impulse to it by erecting several esta blishments, conducted at its own expense among which is that at Linz, which employ: 10,000 spinners and weavers.
The silk manufactures have been rapidl; extending in Austria since the introduction o Jacquard's machinery. They are principall; carried on in the province of the Lower Ens and in the Milanese and Venetian territories The cotton manufacture, though it has beer prosecuted with some energy, especially new Vienna, can hardly be said to be prosperous owing to the difficulty of competing with England and other countries.
The province of the Lower Ens takes the lead in the manufacture of leather, of which the best qualities are made in Vienna. The Upper Ens, Moravia, Styria, Bohemia, and the Tyrol rank next in importance. Hun gary abounds in tanneries ; and in fact nearly every province in Austria is engaged more or less in this branch.
Iron, the mines of which have been already alluded to, is wrought into marketable form in many parts of the empire. Cast iron is
produced in Bohemia, Styria, Hungary, and Illyria ; bars and sheets are rolled in the Lower Ens, Styria, Carinthia and Bohemia; iron and steel wire are made in the Arch duchy; nails in many of the provinces ; and fire-arms and swords in Styria and Hungary. Manufactories of copper, brass, cannon, tin, lead, balls and shot, buttons, gold and silver, are maintained in various parts of the empire.
It was estimated by Lichtenstern, Stein, and Malthus, a few years ago, that the number of manufacturers employed in working up the native produce of Austria, or the raw mate rials imported from other countries, amounted to 2,365,000, and the yearly value of their pro ductions to 1425 millions of silver currency, representing a sum in British sterling of up wards of 140 millions.
With respect to external trade, no country of equal extent is perhaps more disadvanta geously situated; its line of sea-coast is com paratively inconsiderable, and with the soli tary exceptions of the Po and the Adige, its finest streams, such, for instance as the Danube and Elbe, lie, even when crossing its frontiers, at a considerable distance from the sea.
Considerable preparations are being made in various parts of the Austrian empire, espe cially Vienna, to hold a worthy position in the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. The manufac turers hope to produce articles in which com bined cheapness and excellence will be charac teristics. Viennese pianofortes, especially, are expected to illustrate this combination—a feature of much value.