My Italian: Chapter 381 Italy\'s Industrialization Conundrum

In the spring of 1897, although the aviation boom set off by Siegel and Carney was on the rise, it was a rich man's game after all. For the poor people, they still need to pay more attention to their own lives. Just take a look at the noble sport of aviation.

According to the Italian government survey, Italy now has 3.74 million workers, nearly three times higher than the 1.29 million a decade ago. This fully demonstrates the development and growth of Italian industry in this decade. However, although the scale of Italian workers is growing, the increase in the wage level of Italian workers is far from satisfactory.

Taking the textile industry with the largest number of workers in Italy as an example, a skilled male textile worker is paid 140-160 lire per month, while a female worker is paid 110-130 lire.

As for child labor, the Italian government strictly ordered it because of the push of people with intentions; no minors under the age of 16 shall be recruited, otherwise a fine of 200,000-1,000,000 lire will be imposed (one child labor 20W lire, with a maximum of 5 caps), so there are no factories in Italy that dare to Use child labor.

In terms of wages, the wages of Italian workers are twice as low as those of British textile workers, and they are about 75% lower than those in France next door. No way, Italy is a late industrialized country, so it can only use low prices as a weapon to seek a place for its own products.

Of course, as a factory worker, the salary must be lower than that of surrounding countries.

Well, in fact, there is another reason, that is, Italy has a large number of unemployed people, and workers simply do not dare to ask for too much.

Because Italian agriculture is also capitalizing.

From 1870 onwards, in northern Italy, capitalized large farms gradually dominated the northern regions. In these large farms, hired laborers were engaged in productive labor, large-scale irrigation and drainage projects were constructed, new technologies and chemical fertilizers were adopted, and the specialization of agricultural production was strengthened. As a result, total agricultural production in the northern regions is now double what it was in 1870.

In central and southern Italy, starting in 1880 and 1885 respectively, large capitalized farms have also grown in both places. Among them, in the center, large farms already dominate, and in the south it is also accelerating, and it is expected that within five years, large farms in southern Italy will also dominate.

The implementation of capitalized large farms has brought great changes to the development of Italian agriculture. Italian agricultural products have increased by 64% since the reunification. Most of the credit comes from the promotion of capitalized large farms.

Of course, this also has a side effect, that is, the operation of large farms does not require too many employees, and large farms with more production materials only need half of the employees to complete the planting, which also leads to the influx of a large number of landless farmers. City.

The influx of farmers is not a small burden on the city, and of course it is a huge impact on the workers and industry.

A large number of labor force entered the city, which accelerated the industrialization of Italy. Of course, among them, the Italian government opened up the vast market one after another, which is the most critical factor. If Italy's own domestic demand is used, it cannot support its own industrialization process.

In fact, the Italian industry has not fully absorbed the labor force pouring into the cities. Here we have to mention the two reservoirs prepared by the Italian government for this purpose, Albania and Libya. Although there was a lot of uproar in the city because of the relocation of all the natives in these two areas, it also created a flood discharge pool for Italy.

Together, the two places accommodated a million people and solved a lot of trouble for Italy. Of course, East Africa and Borneo also absorbed some of them. Therefore, during this period, Italian foreign immigration (non-colonial immigration) did not increase much, from nearly 100,000 people per year, but it increased to about 120,000.

Of course, with the addition of colonial immigrants, Italy's annual foreign immigration is about 200,000, which is also not low. To a certain extent, the colonies also acted as a catharsis of the population.

However, the population growth rate of Italian cities at this time is not small. Taking Milan as an example, the population of Milan has grown from 330,000 to 490,000 in the past ten years, a considerable increase. In addition, Turin also increased from 250,000 to the current 330,000.

In addition, as the third largest city in Italy, the population of Rome has also grown rapidly, from 300,000 to the current 460,000. The South is not bad either, with Palermo from 240,000 to 340,000 and Naples from 410,000 to 490,000.

The growth of the urban population is also the result of the economy.

Of course, the population growth driven by the economy is also excellent. At present, the birth rate in Italy is 31.8‰, the death rate is 19.7‰, and the natural growth rate is 12.1‰. However, considering the current annual immigration of about 200,000, the current annual population growth rate is not high. Large, it fluctuates around 200,000.

However, the growth of the Italian local population is actually determined by industrialization. Industry cannot accommodate excess population, which will naturally lead to the loss of population, but it is not easy for Italy to make industry want to further accommodate more population. Because of the market opened up by Italy, the exploitability has almost bottomed out.

At present, the overseas markets of Italian industrial products are mainly concentrated in the Far East, the colonies of Borneo and the Balkans. People in Western Europe have a higher standard of living, and Italy's price advantage is not easy to use (because of higher tariffs).

Among them, the scale of the Far East market, Italy is about to develop to the extreme, and it is impossible to continue to grow substantially. Of course, for transit traders, such as raw silk, tung oil, pig bristle and other Far Eastern specialties, Italy has potential to be tapped. However, these do not solve the way out for Italian industrial products.

At this time, the Italian industry needs to undergo transformation, and Rome also understands that the Italian economy has gradually transformed from an extensive economic growth model to an intensive economic growth model.

Of course this is easier said than done. However, for Italy, this matter must be done, and further, it will open up the sky and make Italian industrialization on the road. To take a step back is to fall into a trap, leaving the Italian industry in internal friction.

In this regard, Italian people of insight are also watching.

For example, Pareto, a famous Italian economist, pointed out that if the pace of Italian industrial development is to be further improved, important enterprises must be selected for support.

This Pareto is the proponent of the 28 theory. Because this person believes that important factors are usually only a minority, and unimportant factors are often the majority. Therefore, we only need to control the important few, that is, we can control the whole situation, which is reflected in the quantity ratio, which is roughly 2:8.

Do you feel a little familiar, yes, this is the monopoly stage of the capital economy.

The economist is advocating the benefits of monopoly for Italian economic development. He is right. Monopoly does promote Italian economy, but monopoly also brings harm.

Who can turn a blind eye?