No abstract

Capitalism and the Fascist Regime: Debates and Research Perspectives

Debates and Research Perspectives Despite extensive work in Italian historiography from the 1950s to the 1970s, the relationship between capitalism and the fascist regime has been somewhat neglected in recent decades. This article aims to reframe and place the issue back at the centre of the discussion. After reviewing prior Italian studies and the most recent international literature on the history of capitalism, it presents insights from new articles investigating how economic relations were shaped by the regime’s political context, and how fascism’s economic policy was influenced by specific lobbying groups during the 1920s and 1930s. Lastly, it proposes four research perspectives for looking at the relations between capitalism and the fascist regime, emphasizing the need for a deeper analysis of the dynamics between politics, interest groups and social classes; the influence of the international context on the Italian economy; the role of economists and economic theory; and the overlooked role of industrial and financial groups during the Salò Republic and the Second World War.

Keywords: Fascism, Capitalism, Interwar period, Interest groups, Social classes.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Capitalismo, Periodo tra le due guerre mondiali, Gruppi d’interesse, Classi sociali.

Business Interests and Fiscal Policy in Fascist Italy: The Role of Confindustria and Assonime

The paper provides a contribution to the debate over business power, considering the agency of business associations on the shaping of corporate tax policies in fascist Italy. The analysis focuses on the role played by the Association of Italian Joint-Stock Companies (Assonime) and the Confederation of Industry (Confindustria). The interactions between business interests and fascism are categorized according to a three-level articulation, highlighting the interaction between technicians from both business associations and institutions. The first aim is to verify the effectiveness of this interaction in prompting business interests to reduce fiscal burden on companies. The second is to highlight not only the political but also the economic role of business associations, verifying their effectiveness in reducing uncertainty arising from the changing political, regulatory and economic environment. The analysis of two case studies permits an initial assessment of business power with respect to different tax policies carried out by the fascist regime: the so called «liberal phase» (1922-25) and the «dirigiste phase» (1935-39).

Keywords: Fascism, Business power, Business associations, Lobbying, Corporate tax policies.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Business power, Associazionismo imprenditoriale, Lobbying, Politiche fiscali e tributarie.

The Bank of Italy in the Fascist Period between Interest Groups and Industrial Intervention

The paper aims to shed new light on the evolution of the Italian industrial finance system in the interwar period. It focuses specifically on the role of the Bank of Italy in the launch and management of Consorzio per sovvenzioni su valori industriali (Csvi) in 1914 and the Special Section of Csvi in the early 1920s. In so doing, it explores the relationship between the Bank of Italy and interest groups, a theme that has received comparatively less attention in the extensive literature on the Italian central banks. Examining specific case studies, such as the Csvi’s financing of Fiat in the early 1920s or the financial support to Acna (Aziende chimiche nazionali associate) between the 1920s and 1930s, it provides an unusual vantage point on the power dynamics and lobbying activities between the Bank of Italy, the Treasury, industrialists, and most Italian economists, who consistently maintained clear and opposing stances on industrial intervention.

Keywords: Fascism, Bank of Italy, Industrial intervention, Alberto Beneduce, Acna.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Banca d’Italia, Intervento industriale, Alberto Beneduce, Acna.

Banking Compromises. Stabilization and Regulation of Credit in Fascist Italy, 1926-1929

The article analyses the legislative process of the Banking Act of 1926 and its subsequent application between 1926 and 1929. The main objective is twofold. First, the essay aims to highlight the roles played by different centres of political and economic power in defining the new banking law. Second, the article aims to reflect on the significance of the reform within the establishment and strengthening of the fascist dictatorship after 1925. To achieve this, the paper examines the negotiations that took place between Giuseppe Volpi, the Minister of Finance, Bonaldo Stringher, the General Director of the Bank of Italy, and the Confederazione Bancaria Fascista, led by Giuseppe Bianchini, on some key points of banking regulations. In the conclusion, some reflections are offered on the role of the reform within the process of constructing the authoritarian fascist State in the second half of the 1920s and how it reflects the structural characteristics of the post-1925 bloc of economic and political power in Italy.

Keywords: Fascism, Bank of Italy, Banking regulation, Banking Act of 1926, Political economy.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Banca d’Italia, Regolamentazione bancaria, Legge bancaria del 1926, Politica economica.

A Regime of Sacrifices. The Wage Policy of Fascism in the Industrial Sector (1930-1940)

The paper examines the wage policy of fascism in the industrial sector from the onset of the Great Depression to Italy’s entry into World War II. The aim is to demonstrate that the stagnation of real wages in the 1930s is linked to the regime’s trade union policy, defined here as «material corporatism». By analysing the triangular relationship between the State, employer associations, and labour unions, three phases of wage policy are distinguished: the first marked by sacrifices imposed on the working classes during the crisis; the second characterized by a delaying strategy by the government and unions; and lastly the third, marked by the urgency of measures against inflation in the second half of the decade. Considering different rationales behind the fascist wage policy, a substantial continuity is identified in the freezing of wages at a subsistence level and the neutralization of less manageable pressures.

Keywords: Fascism, Wages, Corporatism, Great Depression, Trade unions.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Salari, Corporativismo, Grande crisi, Sindacati.

Growth, Accumulation, and Distribution in Italy under Fascism: Continuity and Discontinuity between Politics and Economics

The paper surveys the macro-economic history of Italy in the interwar decades (including the Great War and the post-war crisis), forty years after Gianni Toniolo’s comprehensive attempt, in the light of the recent literature on quantitative estimates of national accounts, industrial production, economic well-being, and economic inequality. The newly interpreted facts, as well as the limitations of these reconstructions, are related to the classic debates on the fascist economy, and more recent developments in contemporary history on the period. In this sense, the inclusion of indicators on the distribution of income between factors of production, different percentiles, and social groups, allows us to appreciate more continuity than that suggested by both changes in economic policy and the trend of economic growth and industrial production.

Keywords: Fascism, Economic cycle, Income inequality, Economic policy.

Parole chiave: Fascismo, Ciclo economico, Disuguaglianza dei redditi, Politica economica.

 Vera et integra? Study of a Map of the Border between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Papal States, Attributed to Giovanni Pontano

The paper examines the curious case of a map representing the border of the Kingdom of Sicily, discovered by Neapolitan intellectual Ferdinando Galiani in 1768, in the French Dépôt de la Guerre in Versailles. Following its title, the map was drawn on the basis of sources from papal archives by humanist Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, presumably at the end of the 1490s. The original of this map has been lost, and there have been discussions on its authenticity. Is it an eighteenth-century forgery aimed at defending the interests of the King of Naples, or a rare, late-fifteenth-century example of a Southern Italian topographic map? Without the original, no definitive answers can be given to this question, but an indepth study of the map’s contents and of the territory it depicts raises a series of considerations in defence of its authenticity.

Keywords: Cartography, Frontier studies, Medieval southern Italy, Papal states.

Parole chiave: Cartografia, Studi sulle frontiere, Mezzogiorno medievale, Stato della Chiesa.

The First French Translation of Paolo Giovio’s Historiae sui temporis (1552-1555). Historical Contexts and Publishing Policies

Although Paolo Giovio’s Historiae sui temporis enjoyed wide circulation and was among the Italian historical texts most widely translated into different European languages during the 16th century, it was in subsequent centuries to be harshly criticized or forgotten altogether. The French translation of Giovio’s Historiae was the earliest, printed between 1552 and 1555 by the publisher Guillaume Rouillé who, although working in Lyon, had apprenticed at Giolito’s printing house in Venice. Through analysis of the text and of the figures of some of the translators and printers, the essay aims to reconstruct the cultural and political context in which this publishing operation matured, determined also by precise commercial needs and networks of transnational professional relationships.

Keywords: Paolo Giovio, Translations, Historiography, Guillaume Rouillé.

Parole chiave: Paolo Giovio, Traduzioni, Storiografia, Guillaume Rouillé.

The Seventies, the Intelligence, the Criminal Powers

This article reflects on the book by Miguel Gotor Generazione Settanta. Storia del decennio piú lungo del secolo breve 1966-1982, Torino, Einaudi, 2022.

Keywords: The Seventies, Republican Italy, Intelligence, Criminal powers.

Parole chiave: Anni Settanta, Italia repubblicana, Intelligence, Poteri criminali.