AUTARCHY IDEA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20143, 12 January 1940, Page 5

AUTARCHY IDEA

REVISION BY ITALY RETURN TO ORTHODOXY TRADING & LABOUR LAWS R'OMfc, Dec. 1. A salutary revision of the more extreme concepts of "Autarcliia,” the policy of national self-sufficiency which was inaugurated in Italy after the experience of sanctions, has been brought about by the prospects that world trade will be opened up to Italy by 'the absorption of English, French and German energies in the European war. It is even admitted now that complete autarchy is impossible for a country so poor in raw materials as Italy. This was obvious from the first, but zealots preferred to hide inconvenient facts behind a screen of fine sentiment, while millions were poured out in the discovery and production of expensive substitutes. In exceptional cases a product of some intrinsic value was developed. Lanital, the fibre produced from milk, is an example. It is useful in textile mixtures, although it does not come up to the claims made for it as a complete substitute for wool.

For the most part, however, autarchy has burdened the Italian people ‘with products which are inferior to and more expensive than those produced abroad, and are completely incapable of competing in the world markets. The necessity of meeting world conditions has resulted, in certain industries, in the production of a superior quality purely for export. This is the case in textiles. Italian tailors are allowed only 10 per cent of their stock in “export materials.” Labour Laws Revised Recently another important series of mesaUres was decreed to enableindustries to cut costs and raise production, at the same time permitting labour to take its share in improved wages. Regulations prohibiting overtime were cancelled, and the Saturday afternoon holiday, known here as “Fascist Saturday,” was abolished. Overtime pay was established at normal rate, plus 10 per cent, between 40 and 44 hours a week, and plus 15 per cent over 48 hours. Rates such as these make it profitable for manufacturers to run longer hours. They also have to shoulder slight increases of family allowances to the workers, and the one per cent of wages formerly paid by workers to unemployment insurance funds. This affects about 2,000,000 industrial workers, and should do something to arrest the decline of the home market, while the slight increase in cost of labour should be more than offset by the rise in production. Seek New Markets Latin America and the Balkan countries are being carefully prospected for outlets. A new trade agreement with Yugoslavia nearly quadrtiples annual trade. Bulgarian and Rumanian trade arrangements have been improved and this week Italy bought 7,000.000 bushels of wheat from Hungary. In Uruguay and Brazil, Italy is trying to acquire on a barter basis trade connections formerly enjoyed by England and Germany, while “hot” Mexican oil is being imported against exports of Italian rayon and manufacturers. This is evidently regarded as a longterm arrangement, and special equipment necessary to refine this type of crude oil is being installed in some Italian refining centres. Trade with Chile is also increasing, following the trend of the last three years, when it rose from 5,300.000 gold pesos in .1935 to 13.300.000 in 1938. Ship Lines Benefit Most of tills trade increase is on a barter basis, but the real money -Y, coming into the country for invisible exports. Italian shipping lines, for instance, are carrying the bulk of the Mediterranean trade nowadays, and new ships are constantly being put in - to service. In the profitable Danttbian River trade Italy is predominant with 31 vessels which carried a quarter of a million tons of freight in the first eight months of this year. lis nearest rivals were the Greeks, with about half as much. Cable and telephone services originating in or passing through Italy have increased enormously, following the wartime restrictions in Germany. France and England. All this has given Italy a taste of the possibilities of world trade, which is the best possible antidote to the polic3 r of autarchy, and it is already beginning to take -effect.