of the more open districts; but in Italy generally, and especially in Sardinia, the land is very much subdivided. The following forms of contract are most usual in the several regions: In Piedmont the mezzadria (métayage), the terzieria, the colonia parziaria, the boaria, the schiavenza and the affitto, or lease, are most usual. Under mezzadria the contract generally lasts three years. Products are usually divided in equal proportions between the owner and the tiller. The owner pays the taxes, defrays the cost of preparing the ground, and provides the necessary implements. Stock usually belongs to the owner, and, even if kept on the half-and-half system, is usually bought by him. The peasant, or mezzadro, provides labour. Under terzieria the owner furnishes stock, implements and seed, and the tiller retains only one-third of the principal products. In the colonia parziaria the peasant executes all the agricultural work, in return for which he is housed rent-free, and receives one-sixth of the corn, one-third of the maize and has a small money wage. This contract is usually renewed from year to year. The boaria is widely diffused in its two forms of cascina fatta and paghe. In the former case a peasant family undertakes all the necessary work in return for payment in money or kind, which varies according to the crop; in the latter the money wages and the payment in kind are fixed beforehand. Schiavenza, either simple or with a share in the crops, is a form of contract similar to the boaria, but applied principally to large holdings. The wages are lower than under the boaria. In the affitto, or lease, the proprietor furnishes seed and the implements. Rent varies according to the quality of the soil.
In Lombardy, besides the mezzadria, the lease is common, but the terzieria is rare. The lessee, or farmer, tills the soil at his own risk; usually he provides live stock, implements and capital, and has no right to compensation for ordinary improvements, nor for extraordinary improvements effected without the landlord’s consent. He is obliged to give a guarantee for the fulfilment of his engagements. In some places he pays an annual tribute in grapes, corn and other produce. In some of the Lombard mezzadria contracts taxes are paid by the cultivator.
In Venetia it is more common than elsewhere in Italy for owners to till their own soil. The prevalent forms of contract are the mezzadria and the lease. In Liguria, also, mezzadria and lease are the chief forms of contract.
In Emilia both mezzadria and lease tenure are widely diffused in the provinces of Ferrara, Reggio and Parma; but other special forms of contract exist, known as the famiglio da spesa, boaria, braccianti obbligati and braccianti disobbligati. In the famiglio da spesa the tiller receives a small wage and a proportion of certain products. The boaria is of two kinds. If the tiller receives as much as 45 lire per month, supplemented by other wages in kind, it is said to be boaria a salario; if the principal part of his remuneration is in kind, his contract is called boaria a spesa.
In the Marches, Umbria and Tuscany, mezzadria prevails in its purest form. Profits and losses, both in regard to produce and stock, are equally divided. In some places, however, the landlord takes two-thirds of the olives and the whole of the grapes and the mulberry leaves. Leasehold exists in the province of Grosseto alone. In Latium leasehold and farming by landlords prevail, but cases of mezzadria and of “improvement farms” exist. In the agro Romano, or zone immediately around Rome, land is as a rule left for pasturage. It needs, therefore, merely supervision by guardians and mounted overseers, or butteri, who are housed and receive wages. Large landlords are usually represented by ministri, or factors, who direct agricultural operations and manage the estates, but the estate is often let to a middleman, or mercante di campagna. Wherever corn is cultivated, leasehold predominates. Much of the work is done by companies of peasants, who come down from the mountainous districts when required, permanent residence not being possible owing to the malaria. Near Velletri and Frosinone “improvement farms” prevail. A piece of uncultivated land is made over to a peasant for from 20 to 29 years. Vines and olives are usually planted, the landlord paying the taxes and receiving one-third of the produce. At the end of the contract the landlord either cultivates his land himself or leases it, repaying to the improver part of the expenditure incurred by him. This repayment sometimes consists of half the estimated value of the standing crops.
In the Abruzzi and in Apulia leasehold is predominant. Usually leases last from three to six years. In the provinces of Foggia and Lecce long leases (up to twenty-nine years) are granted, but in them it is explicitly declared that they do not imply enfiteusi (perpetual leasehold), nor any other form of contract equivalent to co-proprietorship. Mezzadria is rarely resorted to. On some small holdings, however, it exists with contracts lasting from two to six years. Special contracts, known as colonie immovibili and colonie temporanee are applied to the latifondi or huge estates, the owners of which receive half the produce, except that of the vines, olive-trees and woods, which he leases separately. “Improvement contracts” also exist. They consist of long leases, under which the landlord shares the costs of improvements and builds farm-houses; also leases of orange and lemon gardens, two-thirds of the produce of which go to the landlord, while the farmer contributes half the cost of farming besides the labour. Leasehold, varying from four to six years for arable land and from six to eighteen years for forest-land, prevails also in Campania, Basilicata and Calabria. The estaglio, or rent, is often paid in kind, and is equivalent to half the produce of good land and one-third of the produce of bad land. “Improvement contracts” are granted for uncultivated bush districts, where one fourth of the produce goes to the landlord, and for plantations of fig-trees, olive-trees and vines, half of the produce of which belongs to the landlord, who at the end of ten years reimburses the tenant for a part of the improvements effected. Other forms of contract are the piccola mezzadria, or sub-letting by tenants to under-tenants, on the half-and-half system; enfiteusi, or perpetual leases at low rents—a form which has almost died out; and mezzadria (in the provinces of Caserta and Benevento).
In Sicily leasehold prevails under special conditions. In pure leasehold the landlord demands at least six months’ rent as guarantee, and the forfeiture of any fortuitous advantages. Under the gabella lease the contract lasts twenty-nine years, the lessee being obliged to make improvements, but being sometimes exempted from rent during the first years. Inquilinaggio is a form of lease by which the landlord, and sometimes the tenant, makes over to tenant or sub-tenant the sowing of corn. There are various categories of inquilinaggio, according as rent is paid in money or in kind. Under mezzadria or metateria the landlord divides the produce with the farmer in various proportions. The farmer provides all labour. Latifondi farms are very numerous in Sicily. The landlord lets his land to two or more persons jointly, who undertake to restore it to him in good condition with one-third of it “interrozzito,” that is, fallow, so as to be cultivated the following year according to triennial rotation. These lessees are usually speculators, who divide and sub-let the estate. The sub-tenants in their turn let a part of their land to peasants in mezzadria, thus creating a system disastrous both for agriculture and the peasants. At harvest-time the produce is placed in the barns of the lessor, who first deducts 25% as premium, then 16% for battiteria (the difference between corn before and after winnowing), then deducts a proportion for rent and subsidies, so that the portion retained by the actual tiller of the soil is extremely meagre. In bad years the tiller, moreover, gives up seed corn before beginning harvest.
In Sardinia landlord-farming and leasehold prevail. In the few cases of mezzadria the Tuscan system is followed.
Mines.—The number of mines increased from 589 in 1881 to 1580 in 1902. The output in 1881 was worth about £2,800,000, but by 1895 had decreased to £1,800,000, chiefly on account of the fall in the price of sulphur. It afterwards rose, and was worth more than £3,640,000 in 1899, falling again to £3,118,600 in 1902 owing to severe American competition in sulphur (see Sicily). The chief minerals are sulphur, in the production of which Italy holds one of the first places, iron, zinc, lead; these, and, to a smaller extent, copper of an inferior quality, manganese and antimony, are successfully mined. The bulk of the sulphur mines are in Sicily, while the majority of the lead and zinc mines are in Sardinia; much of the lead smelting is done at Pertusola, near Genoa, the company formed for this purpose having acquired many of the Sardinian mines. Iron is mainly mined in Elba. Quicksilver and tin are found (the latter in small quantities) in Tuscany. Boracic acid is chiefly found near Volterra, where there is also a little rock salt, but the main supply is obtained by evaporation. The output of stone from quarries is greatly diminished (from 12,500,000 tons, worth £1,920,000, in 1890, to 8,000,000 tons, worth £1,400,000, in 1899), a circumstance probably attributable to the slackening of building enterprise in many cities, and to the decrease in the demand for stone for railway, maritime and river embankment works. The value of the output had, however, by 1902 risen to £1,600,000, representing a tonnage of about 10,000,000. There is good travertine below Tivoli and elsewhere in Italy; the finest granite is found at Baveno. Lava is much used for paving-stones in the neighbourhood of volcanic districts, where pozzolana (for cement) and pumice stone are also important. Much of Italy contains Pliocene clay, which is good for pottery and brickmaking. Mineral springs are very numerous, and of great variety.
Fisheries.—The number of boats and smacks engaged in the fisheries has considerably increased. In 1881 the total number was 15,914, with a tonnage of 49,103. In 1902 there were 23,098 boats, manned by 101,720 men, and the total catch was valued at just over half a million sterling—according to the government figures, which are certainly below the truth. The value has, however, undoubtedly diminished, though the number of boats and crews increases. Most of the fishing boats, properly so called, start from the Adriatic coast, the coral boats from the western Mediterranean coast, and the sponge boats from the western Mediterranean and Sicilian coasts. Fishing and trawling are carried on chiefly off the Italian (especially Ligurian), Austrian and Tunisian coasts; coral is found principally near Sardinia and Sicily, and sponges almost exclusively off Sicily and Tunisia in the neighbourhood of Sfax. For sponge fishing no accurate statistics are available before 1896; in that year 75 tons of sponges were secured, but there has been considerable diminution since, only 31 tons being obtained in 1902. A considerable proportion was obtained by foreign boats. The island of Lampedusa may be considered its centre. Coral fishing, which fell off between 1889 and 1892 on account of the temporary closing of the Sciacca coral reefs has greatly decreased since 1884, when the fisheries produced 643 tons, whereas in 1902 they only produced 225 tons. The value of the product has, however, proportionately increased, so that the sum realized was little less, while less than half the number of men
