The Monegasque are, actually, a minority in Monaco; the popula - tion is truly international with many French (nearly 50%) and Italians (17%). Official languages are Monegasque and French, but Italian and English are nearly as 
important. 5.2.2.8 San Marino San Marino, one of the smallest countries in the world, is similar to other European VSC. It is in an economic and monetary union with Italy, but – analogous to Monaco – not member of the EU. Its effective sovereign- ty is limited due to the tight ties with the Italian economy and Italian pol itics. Economic indicators are therefore also very similar to the Italian ones, where unemployment figures are a bit below the Italian bench- mark. San Marino was first mentioned 885, and it has been independent since then, which makes it the oldest VSC in our sample. Although data on the economy of San Marino are scarce, we know that about 40% of the labor force is employed in the industrial sector. This rather high value is due to the processing of wool, wearing apparel and ceramics. The agricultural sector is not very large, but well-known for its wine and cheese. Nearly 60% of the work force is accounted for by the tertiary sector, where tourism, which contributes over 50% to GDP, and banking are the most important. The main trading partner is Italy; exports consist largely of the above-mentioned industrial pro- ducts; imports are of course far more diverse. 80 % of the population are Sanmarinese; a further considerable per- centage are Italians. Italian is, besides a romagnolic dialect, the only lan- guage spoken in San 
Marino. 5.2.2.9 The common denominator of high-income VSC and common misperceptions revisited Table 5.4 arranges the most important facts of the country descriptions in order to get an impression of possible similarities among the eight VSC at a glance as a starting point for the discussion on welfare sources in VSC. 152 
The economics of sovereignty: «secrets of success» of very small countries