*** Italian economy Kingdom of Italy








Italian Economy: Unified Kingdom of Italy (1860-1946)

Italian economy
Figure 1.--The poverty of southern Europe only intensified with Italian unification. The photo was taken in 1950s in Calabria, one of the poorer regions in southern Italy. This family lived in a one room house. The whole family was together often sleeping in the same large bed. There was not a separate stable and the little cattle lived together. This image should be born in mind when assessing the images shiwing livinging conditions of immigrants in the Unioted States.

Italy upon unification became one of the major European countries in terms of population. Imofication did not occur relatively latebom Europeam history. Italy and Germany were the last major European country to unify. Italybwas finally ujified (1860s). The North (Piedmont) absorbed the southern Kingsom of Naples, a Bourbon monarchy, after a short and relatively bloodless wary Garibaldi--the Risorgimento. Piedmontese primeminister Camillo Cavour is often seen as the architect of Italian unification. He achieved unification in part by bribing southern generals. Cavour is said to have remarked, "Gentlemen, if we had done for ourselves what we have done for Italy, what great scoundrels we should be." Unified Italy was a relatively poor country, compared to the countries of northern Europe. National wealth was still significantly affected by agriculture, although industrial development was remaking the European economy. The relatively poor agricultural land in many areas of Italy were unable to support the large Italian population. Southern Italy in particular was virtualy feudal. Northern Italy, in part because of the Austrian influence was more modern with a degree of industrialization. Unification instead of improving the economy of the south, made conditions worse. A large-scale peasant rebellion to the Piedmont takeover was highly destructive (1860-61). The South was already the poorest part of Italy (in percapita terms). the Northwest-triangle (Turin, Milan, and Genoa) experienced a period of rapid growth and industrialization, lurching ahead of the rest of the country, especially the south (1880s). The south only fell further behind the rest of the country. This dichtomy was not reversed by Mussolini and the Fascists. According to one economic historian, the southern economy hit rock bottom after World War II. 【Zamagni】 By the time the southern economy was at its lowest point, the northern output per person was three times that of the south. The post-War policies of Italy, especially European unification helped to transform the South although this would take some time.

Unification: The Risorgimento (1860s)

Italy upon unification became one of the major European countries in terms of population. Imofication did not occur relatively late in Europeam history. Italy and Germany were the last major European country to unify. Italybwas finally ujified (1860s). The North (Piedmont) absorbed the southern Kingsom of Naples, a Bourbon monarchy, after a short and relatively bloodless war conducted by Garibaldi--the Risorgimento. Piedmontese primeminister Camillo Cavour is often seen as the architect of Italian unification. He achieved unification in part by bribing southern generals. Cavour is said to have remarked, "Gentlemen, if we had done for ourselves what we have done for Italy, what great scoundrels we should be."

Economic Sectors

Unified Italy was a relatively poor country, compared to the countries of northern Europe. National wealth was still significantly affected by agriculture, although industrial development was remaking the European economy. The relatively poor agricultural land in many areas of Italy were unable to support the large Italian population.

Agriculture

Over time fertile land of the Italian peninsula gradually transformed Italy from being one of the richest areas of Europe into one of the poorest. The foundation of Italian wealth, industries like babking, wwool, weaving, glass had declined. Italy was a largely agricultural country at the time of Italian independence -- the "Risorgimento" and thev foundation of the Italian Kingdom (1850s). The country had began to modernizes, but at mid century over 40 percent of the population was enployed in agriculure. 【INEA】 This probsbly does not capture the true importnce because some og Italian agriculture was at the subsistence agriculture. The Italian peasantry was larely a political and not involved in the "Risorgimento". Landowners wre involved and they wre the benefefiaries of the agricultural sysrem that kept the peanr=try poor and uneducated. Italian agriculture was largely unchanged since Roman times, especially in the south. Agricultural land in many reas was seriously depleted. The focus was largely on grain production to produce the bread which was so important in the Italian diet. During the medieval era, pasta also became important. There was also silk production (silviculture). 【Zuppiroli】 Changes began with the Agrarian Crisis (1880s). Italy's first unitary Parliment addressed the growing Agrarian Crisis, but was heavily oriented toward the land owners. 【Vinciguerra】 Agricultural production did improve, but the depleted Italian soil and lack of innovation was not capable of supporting the growing Italian population. Unlike America, innovation did not occur because labor was so cheap, there was no real incentive to invest in modern methods. Italians began migrating to America (1870s). Homesteading was still possible, but few Italians despite coming from rural backgrounds had an interest in Farming. Mostly they sought jobs in America's booming industry, earning far more than they did as agricultural workers in Italy. Others began by operating carts selling a range of merchandise. This was often the first step to opening small shops. The few that did turn to farming pursued truck farms proficing vegtanle close to the big cities rather than grain farming on the Plains. (This was the same reason that the slave South could not compete with the free North in the American Civil War.) The future of Italian agriculture was with specialized high value Mediterranean products for the export market. This only became claer in the 20th century wnen transport options improved. Protection of cereal farming delayed the change. The Fascist regime (1923-44), for example, gave comsiderble effort to increasing grain production--the Battle for Grain. After World War II we see a major shift from aguculture.

Industry

Italian Governments attempted to porimote industry, but wsith only limited success.

Energy

A major problem with industrialization in the 19th centyury was Italy's complete lack of coal. Coal powered steam engines and the production of steel exxpensive because coal had to be imported. Italy did beter as electruicity became importnt. Electricical generation began in Italy (1880s). Hydroelectricity becasme imprtnt. Tansport and machinery witnessed major entrepreneurial ventures (20th century). Fiat was founded (1899).

Regional Economies

Southern Italy in particular was virtualy feudal. Northern Italy, in part because of the Austrian influence was more modern with a degree of industrialization. Unification instead of improving the economy of the south, made conditions worse. A large-scale peasant rebellion to the Piedmont takeover was highly destructive (1860-61). The South was already the poorest part of Italy (in percapita terms). the Northwest-triangle (Turin, Milan, and Genoa) experienced a period of rapid growth and industrialization, lurching ahead of the rest of the country, especially the south (1880s). The south only fell further behind the rest of the country. This dichtomy was not reversed by Mussolini and the Fascists. According to one economic historian, the southern economy hit rock bottom after World War II. 【Zamagni】 By the time the southern economy was at its lowest point, the northern output per person was three times that of the south. The post-War policies of Italy, especially European unification helped to transform the South although this would take some time.

The North


The South

The endemic poverty of souther Italy has been notable in modern times. It was a factor in the flood of Italian emigrants that poured into the United States after the Civil War (1861-65). One economist claims that economic conditions on the south were not really about what went wrong, but more about what went right in the north, especially the northwest. 【Zamagni】 There is some truth in this. A lot did go right in the north, but what went wrong in the south cannot be easily dismissed. Problems emerged in both agriculture and the nascent industrial sector. Since ancient times, the domestic economy was based primarily on agriculture. And here Italy, especially the south had major advantages over northrn Europe because cereal (wheat and other grains) thrived in warm, sunny climates. Northern Europe was meither warm or sunny. Advances in transportation, settlement of the vmerican Midwest, and mechinization of agriculture all meant that low-cost wheat flooded the European market. Southern Italian farmers were still largely using the same methods employed by the ancient Romans on fields with declining fertility. The long-standing protectionist policies of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples (southern Italy) were replaced by the the free trade policies of the new unified Itallian Kingdom (1860s). The Italian royal dynasty was the House of Savoy, (northern Italy). Thus it was particularly atuned to the interests of the commercial farmers of the North, Italy's most productive agricultural region. This exposed sputhern farmers and farm workers to the rigors of the international market in which because of their inefficent methods they were ill-prepared to compete even in te domestic market. The industrial sector was smaller, but fared even worse. At the time of unification, Naples in the south was the most industrialized city in Italy. This did not mean heavy industry, probably mamufacturing is a better description. Some heavy industry meaning primarily steel-based industries were energing. Manufacturing in Naples favired by the same Bourbon monarchy that protected sourthern agriculture. This meant, however, that southern manufactuting was not as efficient as elsewhere in Italy and Europe as a whole. The new unified Royal Government implemented a free-trade policy, which quickly bankrupted the south's emergent steel foundaries and railway locomotive builders. The Royal Governent three decades later adopted protectiinist policies (1890s). This was, however, too late for the bankrupted siuthern industries. The industrialization of the north had developed and the northern-oriented Royal Government wanted to protect those indutries. The southern industries were gone, but protection of the northern industries meant that prives for manufactured goods rose for o southern consumers, both rural agricultural workers and city workers who no longer had manufacturing jobs. The liberal government, including those led by southern politicans (1860-early-1920s), did attempt to dael with theeconomic problems if the south. Mussolini's Fascists seized power (1922) also based on a nirthern power base. They aldo failed to deal with the ptoblems of the south. Actuall they were even less interested than the liberal Royal governments.

Sources

Istituto nazionale di economia agraria (INEA). "L'agricoltura italiana conta 2011" (2011).

Vinciguerra, Salvatore (2014). "Mercantile routes and agriculture transformation in Southern Italy and Sicily between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries," Rivista di storia economica Vol. 3 (2014), pp. 281–324.

Zamagni. Vera. Economic History of Italy 1860-1990

Zuppiroli, Marco. "Corso di 'Economia Agroalimentare (Sistema e Mercati)" (Università degli Studi di Parma).







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Created: 2:39 AM 6/8/2013
Last updated: 7:22 PM 6/8/2023