Italian excess of imports increased. This was true of Spain, Brazil, British India, Great Britain, and the United States.

On the other hand, even during the war the excess of exports to some countries increased, as to neighboring Switzerland, Greece, and Tripoli. In a somewhat similar position were those countries, as France and Tunis, the Italian excess of imports from which decreased.

(v) Some Effects of the War-Development of Armament, Chemical and Automobile Industries

1. In brief it might be said that the war expanded the industrial capacity of Italy, developed new lines of production, and hastened her general economic development. However, Italy suffered from certain limitations, particularly in the latter part of the war, such as lack of raw material and coal, shortage of labor, inadequate facilities for transportation, both on land and sea, a dislocation of foreign exchange rates, and Government regulation of commerce by licensing imports and exports.2

The war industries, which developed very largely since 1914, employed in 1918 about half a million persons. In this period their capacity was greatly increased-twelve-fold for cannon, thirty-fold for projectiles, and two hundred-fold for rifles. The Ansaldo Works near Genoa became one of the most important armament firms in the world in 1918. Plans have been prepared for a transition to peace conditions of approximately seventeen hundred munition plants all over Italy. The same development is to be noted in the chemical industry. Before the war the chemical industries of Germany supplied Italy with about 200,000,000 lire worth of chemicals, drugs, and dyes. The war had the effect of a prohibitive tariff and new plants were built at Castiglioncello, Piedmulera, and Cengio. The exportation of chemicals rose from about 78,000,000 lire in 1913 to 238,000,000 lire in 1917. Like Great Britain and France, Italy will protect her infant industries after the war. Another important industry which was greatly stimulated by the war was the manufacture of 'Supplement to Commerce Reports Sa, February 26, 1919.

automobiles. The exports of vehicles rose from 43,000,000 lire in 1913 to 144,000,000 lire in 1917. After Italy had been at war for two years there were in operation forty-three plants manufacturing automobiles and aeroplanes, the center of the industry being at Turin.

During the war pleasure cars were produced in diminished numbers; motor trucks of the one-and-a-half and three-ton types constituted the chief output of the automobile plants. Italy now holds second place among the automobile exporting countries of the world. Whereas in 1915 she exported in value about onefifth as much as the United States, she has bettered her position and now exports about one-fourth as much. The following figures were issued by the Italian Ministry of Commerce, showing the position of the chief countries exporting automobiles:

VALUE OF AUTOMOBILE EXPORTS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
[Figures in million lire: o00,000 omitted]'

The increase of exports was accompanied by a decline in imports. After the peace Italy ought to be able to find a ready market for her motor cars in Europe, the Near and Far East, and Mediterranean countries.

Socially, the effects on Italy have been similar to those on most other countries. The war withdrew men from the front, and put women into industry. At the Fiat automobile plant at Turin 33 per cent of the employees are women. Women have replaced men not only at clerical work and at the easier tasks in industry, but in the shop and factory where monotonous repetitive operations call for patience and deftness. The Ansaldo Works at Genoa, among the first to employ women on a large scale, had 50,000 in their service in the summer of 1916, and over 80,000 early in 1918. The solution of the after-war problem of women in industry is dependent upon many considerations,

such as the cost of living, the newly found freedom, the disability of the males in the family, the diminished prospects of marriage, and the fluctuations in the labor supply.

B. After-War Policies and Prospects

(i) Italian Economic Policy After the War

8

The war has awakened Italy industrially. It has removed German influence from industry and finance, and has set Italian economic life on a basis of its own. War-time developments have stimulated attempts to increase the industrial development of Italy, and to make Rome a thriving business city. The shortage of coal in Italy has fostered hydro-electric development. The efficient utilization of natural and human resources, the popularization of technical education, the increase of exports and the limitation of imports, the conclusion of favorable commercial treaties, the development of a merchant marine adequate to Italian commercial needs, and the creation of financial facilities for trade, all of these measures are essential parts of Italian afterwar policy.

During 1917 a sort of reconstruction committee was organized to formulate a post-war policy. In addition to the official body, associations like "The Brothers of Italy," "The Consumers and Producers," and other groups of industrial and commercial interests organized and proposed programs of action and recommended legislation. Industrially, Italy is more fortunate than any of the belligerents, in so far as the labor supply is concerned. Before the war hundreds of thousands of her laborers emigrated. During the war this flow ceased and in spite of her losses in killed she has an adequate supply of labor, perhaps a greater supply than if the war had not taken place. This human asset endows the Italian after-war industrial program with a touch of

Much of the descriptive matter on the effects of the war and on the after-war policy has been taken from the excellent article on Italy, the fourth in a series on the after-war problems of the European countries published in the New York Evening Post on Saturdays, May 25 to June 22, 1918.

reality which is lacking in that of some of the other countries on the continent.

Part of the scheme for the industrialization of Italy is the proposal to make Rome the industrial, commercial, and financial center. If "the destiny of Italy summons her to be the England of the South," Rome is to be her London. All sorts of measures have been recommended, such as the foundation of technical schools in Rome, the granting of factory sites, the extension of facilities for the municipal and railway authorities, the utilization of abundant water-power, of idle land and ample labor, and the reduction of the cost of living in Rome. It is even proposed to make Rome a seaport by building a deep-water canal fifteen miles long.

The more conservative economists view with skepticism any attempt to transform immediately an agricultural center into a commercial city; they advocate instead the establishment at Rome of a free zone like the free port of Hamburg or of Naples. This would constitute an inducement for manufacturing to center in the city.

The program of industrialization is the counterpart of a movement for the establishment of a self-sufficient Italy, "to prevent the country freed from the economic tutelage of Germany from falling under that of France or England." 3 Italy fought the war not for the Allies, but for herself, and therefore she means to conduct her economic enterprise after the war independently of foreign patronage. The proposal for an economic entente of the Latin countries was considered impracticable because France and Spain are competitors of Italy in the same fields. Their needs are not reciprocal. The attempt to form closer connections with England has been obstructed by the high prices of British commodities, particularly coal.

The difficulties of exchange and the need for restricting imports have focused attention upon the annual payment of over 180,000,000 lire which Italy paid for British coal. Just as the war freed Italy from German economic domination, so the peace will find Italy determined to resist dependence upon any other coun'Signor Paolo Orlando in the Nuova Antologia.

try. Italian hydro-electric power is to be substituted for British coal. "With our own electric plant we should at one blow strike off a double yoke; that of our servitude to Germany, and that of our dependence on England. The first is more perilous because political; but the second, because economic, is still extremely serious." During the war Italy's dependence upon foreign coal almost resulted in military disaster, and it was a serious impediment in the glass and earthenware industry. "Even before the war the electrical industry was the most highly developed in the country, more capital being sunk in it than in any other branch of Italian industries except railways. The hydroelectric power production had increased five-fold in seven years, and amounted to about a million horsepower in 1914. Italy has the greatest amount of accessible water-power per square mile of any nation in Europe." In Sardinia and in the lower peninsula work on the construction of great reservoirs has continued during the war with the object of supplying hydro-electric power, preventing floods, and irrigating summer crops.

To achieve her industrial development Italy will not only have to retain her migrating labor at home, but she will have to educate it technically. Indeed, it was the mechanical skill of the Italian workmen that made possible the manufacture of munitions, airplanes, and motor-cars. It is intended to utilize this undeveloped human resource for purposes of peace, and to substitute native Italian mechanics for imported German technical men. Schools are to be set up in various parts of the country to utilize the raw materials which formerly were exported to manufacturing countries like Belgium, Germany, France, and Great Britain. To quote Paolo Orlando again:

"When one realizes that in Italy only 5 per cent of human energy is expended in useful work, that only 15 per cent of the calories of coal are used, one is persuaded that Italy could increase its limited production by 100 per cent."

The development of industries and the utilization of the resources of the country are essential for righting its trade balance. Before the war the increase in foreign trade was notable, amount'Signor Ezio Gray, "The Bloodless War."