later, showed that agriculture was not improving and that landowners were earning revenue from their lands and contributing almost nothing to the development of the land. The break-up of communal lands hurt lower-class Italians to the benefit of landlords. Most of the workers on the agricultural lands were not peasants, but short-term laborers (braccianti) who, at best, were employed for one year. Peasants without stable income were forced to rely on meagre food supplies, the disease was spreading rapidly, and plagues were reported, including a major cholera epidemic which killed at least 55,000 people. The Italian government could not deal with the situation effectively because of its massive debt. Italy suffered economically also as a consequence of the overproduction of grapes. In the 1870s and 1880s, France's vineyard industry was suffering from vine disease caused by pests. Italy prospered as the largest exporter of wine in Europe. Still, following the recovery of France in 1888, Southern Italy was overproducing and had to cut back, which caused greater unemployment and bankruptcies. The Italian government invested heavily in developing railways in the 1870s, more than doubling the existing length of railway line between 1870 and 1890. Il Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy) Italy's population remained severely divided between wealthy elites and impoverished workers, especially in the South. An 1881 census found that over 1 million southern day-laborers were chronically under-employed and likely to become seasonal emigrants to sustain themselves economically. Southern peasants, as well as small landowners and tenants, often were in a state of conflict and revolt throughout the late 19th century. There were exceptions to the generally poor economic condition of agricultural workers of the South, as some regions near cities such as Naples and Palermo as well as along the Tyrrhenian Sea coast. From the 1870s onward, intellectuals, scholars and politicians examined the economic and social conditions of Southern Italy (Il Mezzogiorno), a movement known as meridionalismo ("Meridionalism"). For example, the 1910 Commission of Inquiry into the South indicated that the Italian government thus far had failed to ameliorate the severe economic differences. The limited voting rights only to those with sufficient property allowed rich landowners to exploit the poor. Liberal era of politics (1870–1914) After unification, Italy's politics favored liberalism: the liberal-conservative right (destra storica or Historical Right) was regionally fragmented and liberal-conservative Prime Minister Marco Minghetti only held on to power by enacting revolutionary and left-leaning policies (such as