The importation at this port is limited to small parcels of sugar, coffee, pepper, rice, tobacco, petroleum, spirits, &c., so that the greatest part of vessels arrive in ballast. The exportation, on the contrary, forms the principal business, and the article chiefly shipped is brimstone, each vessel taking either the entire load or a portion of cargo. Besides this, there is exported in limited quantity grain, barley, beans, almonds, linseed, olive oil, sumac, soda, and cotton. The cultivation of this latter is increasing daily.

The total export of brimstone for the year ending as above was 970,909 cantars, valued at $1,699,000.

LICATA-JOSEPH MASTROENI, Consular Agent.

I enclose the following statement of the vessels of all flags that have arrived and cleared at this port, their tonnage and the quantity and value of the brimstone exported during the year ending September 30, 1864.

Steamers. Barks. Brigs. Schoon'rs. Latine Total General Brimstone. Value.

Nationality.

sails. vessels.

tonnage.

Brimstone is the principal article of export at this port, and being of a better quality than elsewhere in Sicily, obtains a higher price. Small quantities of other Sicilian products are also exported, but mostly to Italian ports.

Destination.

Nationality.

Boxes. Jars. Boxes. Boxes. Cantars. Box's. Bales. Bags. Bags. Bags. Casks. Bags. Cases. Casks. Cases. Cases. Bags. Casks.

OTRANTO-J. S. REDFIELD, Consul.

JUNE 30, 1864.

In this despatch I would report that no American vessel has been within the jurisdiction of this consulate since it has been established, nor is any American capital employed here.

JUNE 30, 1864.

I enclose herewith a report of the shipments of olive oil, alone, from the port of Gallipoli for the last three years.

*

Gallipoli is the most important seaport in this district at present. Besides its foreign trade, it is now a stopping place for two lines of steamers from Naples, and in another twelve or eighteen months it will be connected with Naples, and all the other principal cities of the kingdom, by railroad.

*

Statement showing the quantities of olive oil exported from Gallipoli, together with the number and nationality of the vessels in which shipped, during the years 1861-'2, 1862–’3, and 1863-'4.

These cargoes were mostly for the United Kingdom and the Baltic. The two last crops of olives have been very small, which accounts for the diminution in exports the last two years. The crop of the coming season promises to be very abundant. Casks for oil are manufactured at Gallipoli, and exported, to a large extent, to the Ionian Islands and the Levant. The last year the proprietors in this province were induced to cultivate cotton on a much larger scale than heretofore, on account of the high prices ruling, so that about 280,000 pounds of cotton have been exported from this port alone to Naples and Genoa for exportation since September last. This year it is calculated that the crop will exceed ten times that of last year. Wine and grain are shipped from this port also, though not in large quantities.

CARRARA-FRANKLIN TORREY, Consul.

SEPTEMBER 30, 1864.

I have the honor to transmit herewith my first report on the commerce

within the jurisdiction of this consulate.

*

I will first give a brief description of the country and customs of the people, that a more correct judgment may be formed of the nature and value of its

commerce.

The town, or city as it is called, of Carrara is situated in the nich of a low branch of the Apennine mountains, which nearly surround the town, leaving an aperture of less than one-eighth of a mile wide that gives a view of the Med iterranean sea, which lies about three miles distant. From the sea-coast the land rises gradually to the town, and is very fertile and highly cultivated even to the very summit of the first range of mountains, producing excellent wine and olive oil, the former the best in the kingdom. The population of Carrara proper is about 12,000; but the commerce is extended to several small towns, of which Avenza, near the sea-coast, and Torano, near the mountain, are the principal, and altogether number about 18,000 souls. Massa and Seravezza are the only other commercial towns of importance within this consular district. They are both situated, like Carrara, about the same distance from the sea, and engaged in the same commerce; but of much less extent, and, consequently, are less known as marble-producers.

Nearly the whole male population of this district is engaged in this marble business or in working for the trade; but at least seven-eighths of them either work in the quarries, saw-mills and studios, or are transporting the blocks to the sea-coast and preparing them for shipment. Even the peasant women have their part to do: one can see hundreds of them with enormous loads of sand or water, which they carry on their heads, moving in procession up the mountains to the quarries, to supply the sawyers with the means to cut the large masses of marble into transportable blocks. Other groups may be seen on the rugged peaks of the mountains gathering forage and bedding for the numerous oxen that are used in drawing the marble away from the quarries.

The marble-producing towns have a large stream of water running through each, where mills are established for sawing the blocks into slabs. The water comes from the mountains, and in sufficient quantities to run heavy machinery during the whole year. With these natural advantages, which God in his goodness has bestowed upon this people, there are few who are able to appreciate them, and the greatest ignorance and indolence prevail to an enormous extent. In the industrial arts, the people are far behind other countries engaged in the same pursuits; and not only is it with the greatest difficulty that they can be induced to adopt the simplest modern tools and machinery, but they put every obstacle in the way to their introduction. The reason of this has been ascribed to their great jealousy of their trade; and, as all such improvements are introduced by foreigners, their hostility to both are equal.

The quarries for which Carrara is so famous lie along the ravines of the mountains, through which roads or pathways are cut for access. The excavations begin quite near to the town and continue up different ravines from one and a half to two miles. Quarrying marble is like mining for minerals. Many quickly make a fortune while others as rapidly lose one. The surface indicates only the quality of marble; the quantity and value are risked by the quarrymen.

There is no quarry so productive that it cannot contain all it produces when squared into blocks. But as the marble from many quarries is loaded on to wagons at one common landing, and is in danger of being damaged there by crowding the blocks together, and the continual falling of the debris from the higher surrounding quarries, it has been the custom to remove all the marble as fast as it is quarried.

A merchant seldom goes to the quarries, but to the sea-shore or deposit to purchase and where he can choose from thousands of blocks of all descriptions. It is here that the marble is divided, and cargoes made up for all parts of the world; the first quality going to England, France, and Germany, and the sec

ond and third qualities to the United States. The transport to the ports of shipment for the United States is made in small craft or lighters, either to Leghorn or Genoa, at a small expense.

* *

The Vermont marble quarrymen can always compete successfully with the importers of Carrara marble in cost, but it is in the qualities that they fail. Since the passage of the tariff bill, which is so hostile to this trade, a perfect stagnation of business has prevailed; and the quantity of marble of the quality usually shipped to the United States has become so great that no market price can be established; many quarries are closed, and the workmen discharged; and all those quarrymen who continue to keep a few men employed have reduced their wages so much that it is difficult for them to support their families. As the winter approaches more men will be discharged, and great want and misery be the consequence. Under these disadvantages it is difficult for me to fix upon the average prices of marble prepared for shipment.

From my returns it will be seen that during the months of June and July I issued for invoices of marble twenty-six certificates, nine in the month of August, and five in September. The reason is as follows: Before the passage of the present tariff, merchants were looking forward to their usual amount of trade, and took engagements accordingly; but on the arrival of the news of the intended enormous increase of the duty on marble and other Italian produce, no other vessels were chartered. Those vessels already loading and chartered to arrive in Leghorn and Genoa were despatched with little more than the marble previously engaged on board, leaving thereby a great loss to the charterers. These engagements having been fulfilled, no merchant has entered into others of any importance; and until Congress reduces the duty on marble to its former rate, which was all it could bear, the trade cannot be revived, for with this and the high exchange against them the merchants cannot continue to ship their merchandise to the United States without incurring a certain loss. This marble trade must necessarily be carried on via Leghorn and Genoa, there being no safe anchorage for large vessels at the place of shipment. It is, nevertheless, quite independent of either port, and, I might say, controls the amount of their trade, for no vessel is chartered either in Genoa or Leghorn for the northern States without securing first a portion of the cargo in marble. If a safe and convenient harbor could be constructed on this coast, Carrara would command a greater amount of trade with the United States than either Leghorn or Genoa. But this will probably never be realized on account of the movable sandy bottom all along the coast for twenty or thirty miles. The Italian government has, however, been convinced of the importance of assisting the trade, and has constructed a railroad expressly for the transport of marble to connect with the line now in construction from Leghorn to Genoa, and open to traffic as far as Spezzia.

*

The report of the Chamber of Commerce shows that in Carrara alone there are 400 quarries of all descriptions, of which over 100 have been, up to the present time, constantly worked, giving employment to about 3,000 workmen,

The quantity of marble quarried annually, and transported to the place of shipment, is about 60,000 tons. The exact amount drawn from the quarries in 1863, with a depressed market, was 59,790 tons; and the value of marble, wrought and unwrought, exported from Carrara to all parts of the globe was 4,000,000 francs.

Since May 19 (the time at which I entered upon the duties of this office) the value of the exportations to the United States amounted to 207,01457 francs, consisting entirely of wrought and unwrought marble. This is a small amount in comparison with the value of the same article usually sent in the same period of time since the year 1853. From my personal knowledge of the trade, the value of marble of all kinds shipped annually from this district to the United States since the year 1853 has averaged about 1,200,000 francs; and if Con