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could not be sold any cheaper than the other produce at thesame market. But this was not the only disadvantage underwhich the inhabitants of Fucino laboured ; it most frequentlyhappened that the real grower could not personally attend themarket at Sora to sell his commodities, hut had to sell themat the market of Avezzano , where he was perforce at themercy of a very limited number of speculators, who alone werecapable of bearing the cost of exportation, and who were, inconsequence, the arbitrary and absolute masters of the fortuneof the public. The produce of the district fetched much lowerprices than it would have done if it had had an easily accessiblemarket, open to free competition. The result of this state ofthings was, that field labour, which owing to the mountainouscharacter of the country about the lake, was very toilsome,became also very unprofitable, agriculture itself remained poorand in a backward state, and the greater number of the Marsidriven also from their little villages on the tops of the moun-tains by the inclemency of the weather during autumn andwinter, used to abandon their homes from October every yearto the following April, spending the intervening months in theprovinces of Puglia , or in the Roman Oampagna, or even inthe Tuscan Maremme, tilling the land in those insalubriousregions, of which they have hitherto been the real cultivators.It would be out of place here, to show the sad influences whichthis nomad life exerts upon the morals and health of thosewho lead it, as well as upon agriculture in general. All thought-ful administrators of those countries have always been unani-mous in declaring that the advantages which might result fromsuch a system are much inferior to the amount of evil it pro-duces among the population.

Those among the modern Marsi who possessed some smallcapital, generally invested it in the cattle trade. It was a restof the ancient character of that people, and still quite recentlythe richest inhabitants were not the landed proprietors, butthe owners of flocks and herds, which during the winter were