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C O M O — C O M P A N Y
55,000. In 1860 Como possessed 3000 hand looms; in 1899, 11,000, while 3500 machine looms had been introduced. Since one machine loom is equal to three hand looms, the weaving potentiality of Como has been multiplied sevenfold in thirty years. The importance of this development is the more noteworthy in view of the fact that, while Como possesses 3500 steam looms, only 2000 exist in the rest of Italy. The Como factories yield products of an estimated annual value of 60,000,000 lire. Most of the Como silk is exported, especially to London and to the Levant. The mountainous character of the province of Como and the excessive subdivision of landed property retard the introduction of improved methods of agriculture. The Agricultural Unions, however, have succeeded in promoting the use of artificial manure and in increasing the productivity of the soil. The most important improvements have taken place in regard to the raising of silk-worms by the introduction of a system of selecting the eggs, and by modifications of the peasants’ houses. Industrial progress and agricultural improvements have combined in producing in the province an unusual degree of prosperity. The spirit of initiative and the activity of the inhabitants found expression in 1899 in the Silk and Electrical Exhibition, organized to celebrate the first centenary of the invention of the electric pile by Alessandro Volta, a native of Como. The Exhibition, opened in May 1899, was destroyed by fire in the following July, but was rebuilt and reopened within a few weeks by its original organizers. An International Electrical Congress took place in connexion with the Exhibition. The distinction gained as early as the ninth century in building and architecture by the Magistri Comacini still excites the emulation of the inhabitants of the region, who, as specialists in the art of building, emigrate to all parts of Europe. The spirit of reverence for historical buildings and local artistic memories has led to the restoration during the last few years of Como Cathedral, and of the churches of Sant’ Abbondio, San Fedele, San Carpoforo, and other minor monuments of the province. (l. Bi.) Como, a lake of North Italy, lying at the foot of the Rhaetic Alps, directly north from Milan. Area, according to Marinelli, 56^ square miles; maximum depth, 1358 ft. ; altitude above sea-level, 653 ft. ; temperature at the bottom, 42°‘8 Fahr. During the day a southerly wind, the Breva, blows pretty constantly, and during the night a northerly wind, the Tivano. The difference between “high” water and “low” water levels amounts to as much as 16 ft. Its shores are thickly studded with silk factories. Comoro Islcinds, a group of islands belonging to France, situated half-way between Madagascar and the African continent, to the north of the Mozambique Channel. The following table of the area and population of the only four of any size gives one of the sets of figures offered by various authorities :— Island. Mayotte Great Comoro M obeli ,. . Anjouan Total
Area (square miles).
Population.
140 385 90 145
9,000 50,000 9,000 12,000
760
80,000
The islands are of volcanic formation and bristle with mountains, the highest of which is Coratola (8500 feet). The soil is very fertile, and covered with forests of cocoanut
and fig trees. The climate is in general warm, but not torrid nor unsuitable for Europeans. The dry season lasts from May to October, the rest of the year being rainy. The natives, who form practically the whole of the population, are of Malagasy, Negro, and Arab blood. The more important localities are Dzaudai, a small island off Mayotte, where are the government headquarters; M’sapere, on the opposite mainland, which is the chief centre of trade in the island; Bambao, in Anjouan; Fomboni, in Moheli; and Movoni, in Great Comoro. Mayotte was occupied as a colony in 1843, and has long been completely subject to the French, who, however, have experienced some trouble in the other islands, over which they extended a protectorate in 1886. The administration, as regulated by the decree of September 1899, is under a governor of the whole group, who himself administers Mayotte, but governs the other three islands through administrators. At Mayotte there are a tribunal of first instance and a paymaster. Each island has its own local budget. That of Mayotte, which alone receives a subvention from France, shares more than half the totals, which in 1901 were estimated to balance at about .£20,000. Mayotte also appropriated £1055 in the 1901 colonial budget of France, and in consequence of a destructive cyclone in 1898 borrowed £20,000, to be paid in 20 years, without interest. Great Comoro has a debt of £38,000. Mayotte produces sugar, vanilla, rice, coffee, cacao. For the rest, Anjouan is the most favourable to cultivation, especially of vanilla, but the cocoanut hr gathered. In Great Comoro copra is prepared and zebras are reared. The only industrial establishments in the group are sugar-works and saw-mills. Trade statistics are only issued for Mayotte, but this term may include the whole group. In 1898 imports totalled £28,300 (France £21,200). In 1898 exports totalled £49,320 (France £47,890). The movement of the vessels of the Messageries Maritimes at Mayotte reaches 5000 tons for vessels with cargoes. At present it is rather because of their strategic than their commercial value that the Comoros are of importance. A coaling station has been established among them. See Henrique. Les Colonies Francises. Paris, 1889.—Lee. French Colonies. Foreign OfBce Report, 1900. L’Annee Coloniale, Paris, 1900. (p. l.) Company. — Joint stock enterprise derives its vitality from the co-operative principle, by which a multitude of small investors create a fund to be used in furtherance of some commercial undertaking for the common benefit of all. The natural growth and expansion of this fruitful principle was checked until the middle of the nineteenth century by the notorious risks, attaching to unlimited liability. In the case of an ordinary partnership, though their liability is unlimited, the partners can generally tell what risks they are incurring. Not so the shareholders of a company. They delegate the management of their business to a board of directors, and they may easily find themselves committed by the fraud or folly of its members to engagements which in the days of unlimited liability meant ruin. Failures like those of Overend and Gurney, and of the Glasgow Bank, caused widespread misery and alarm. It was not until limited liability had been grafted on the stock of the co-operative system that the real potency of the principle of industrial co-operation became apparent. We owe the adoption of the limited liability principle to the clear-sightedness of Lord Sherbrooke—then Mr Robert Lowe — and to the vigorous advocacy of Lord Bramwell. We owe it to Lord Bramwell also that the principle was made a feasible one. The practical difficulty was how to bring home to persons dealing with the company notice that the liability of the share-
