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Notes on the Rate of Industrial Growth in Italy, 1881–1913*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Alexander Gerschenkron
Alexander Gerschenkron
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

This paper represents an attempt to summarize the first stages of a research project, the completion of which is still remote. Its purpose is to pose one or two basic problems and to indicate the directions along which the answers may lie.

It is obvious that in the decades following its political unification Italy's economy remained very backward in relation not only to that of England, but also to the economies of industrially advancing countries on the continent of Europe. Whatever gauge one may choose for the purposes of comparison, be it qualitative descriptions of technological equipment, organizational efficiency, and labor skills in individual enterprises; or scattered quantitative data on relative productivity in certain branches of industry, or the numbers of persons employed in industry; or the density of the country's railroad network; or the standards of literacy of its population, the same conclusion will result.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1955 , pp. 360 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1955

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References

1 Pantaleoni, Maffeo, “Delle regioni d'ltalia in ordine alia loro ricchezza ed al loro carico tributario,” Scritti varii di economia, Third Series (Rome, 1910), pp. 242, 252.Google Scholar

2 Gerschenkron, Alexander, Description of an Index of Italian Industrial Output, 1881-1913. Russian Research Center, Harvard University, 1955.Google Scholar

3 The six series are: (1) Mining, (2) Metal-making, (3) Engineering, (4) Textiles, (5) Chemicals, (6) Foodstuffs. Also two alternative computations based on weights derived from data on employment and horse power, respectively, have been prepared. The results as presented in the following are all in terms of an index based on value added weights.

4 Mitchell, Wesley, Business Cycles: The Problem and its Setting (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1927), p. 445.Google Scholar

5 Cf. Gerschenkron, Alexander, “The Rate of Industrial Growth in Russia Since 1885,” The Tasks of Economic History, Supplement VII (1947), p. 151.Google Scholar

6 The German and Swedish rates have been computed from data given in Industrialization and Foreign Trade (League of Nations, 1945), n. p. p. For the Russian and Japanese rates, cf.Google ScholarGerschenkron, Alexander, op. cit., p. 156Google Scholar.

7 Cf. “Legge concernante la marina mercantile,” Raccolta ufficide delle leggi e dei decreti del Regno d'ltalia, LXXIX, No. 3547 (December 6, 1885).Google Scholar

8 Of. Speech by the Minister of Finance Magliani, July 5, 1887, Camera dei Senatori, Dis-cussioni, Sessione 1886-1887 (Rome, 1887), p. 1461Google Scholar.

9 “Atti delta Giunta per la inchiesta agraria e sullc condizioni della classe agricola,” Relazione finale sui resultati dell'inchiesta redalta per incarico della Giunta dal Presidentc, Conte Stefano Jacini (Rome, 1884), Vol. XV, Fascicolo I; alsoGoogle Scholar“Atti della Commissione d'Inchiesta per la revisione della tariffa doganale,” Relazione del Senatore Lampertico (Rome, 1885)Google Scholar , I. Porte Agraria, Fascicolo, I, p. 184Google Scholar.

10 Valenti, Ghino, Cranaglie, produzione, commcrcio, regime doganale, Comitato nazionale per le tariffe doganale e per i trattati di commcrcio (Rome, 1920), p. 97Google Scholar ; and Liepmann, H., Tariff Levels and the Economic Unity of Europe (London: G. Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1938), pp. 64, 68, 72, 81, and 87.Google Scholar In 1913, the Italian wheat duty amounted to 41.5 per cent ad valorem. The corresponding figures for France, Germany, and Austria were 34.5, 38, and 36 per cent, respectively.

11 Thus, e.g., the rate on steel was 10 lire per quintal while that on locomotives was likewise 10, that on railroad freight cars 9, and on steam engines 8 lire per quintal. Cf. “Leggc che approva la tariffa doganale d'importazione e d'esportazione,” Raccoita uffidale dellc leggi e dei dccrcti del Regno d'Halia, LIII, No. 439 (May 30, 1878)Google Scholar.

12 “Legge che riforma la tariffa doganale,” Raccoita ufficiale dclle leggi e dei decreti del Regno d'ltalia, Parte Principale, Series 3a, LXXXV, No. 4703 (July 14, 1887).Google Scholar

13 A good example among many is the Report of the Committee on Tariff Inquiry, the Industrial Part of which was written by Ellena, V.. Cf. “Atti della Commissione d'Inchiesta per la revisione della tariffa doganale,” II. Parte Industrial, Relazione del Deputato V. Ellena (Rome, 1886), pp. 242, 361, and 420Google Scholar.

14 Atti parlementari, Camera dei Senatori, Sessione 1886-87, July 9, 1887 (Rome, 1887), p. 1621. Incidentally, a few weeks earlier, in order to allay the uneasiness of the Lower Chamber with regard to the lopsidedness of the tariff, it was promised that an opportunity for revising the rates on machinery would be provided when the House reconvened after the summer vacation. Such a revision never was undertaken. Cf. Atti del Parlamento Italiano, Camera dei Deputati, Sessione 1886-87, June 23, 1887 (Rome, 1887), p. 3967.

15 Cf., for example, in Trattati e convenzioni fra il Regno d'ltalia e gli altri ttati: treaty with Austria-Hungary, December 6, 1891, Vol. XII (Rome, 1892)Google Scholar ; treaty with Switzerland, April 19, 1892, Vol. XIV (Rome, 1895), and July 7, 1904, Vol. XVII (Rome, 1907); treaty with Germany,. December 3, 1904, Vol. XVII (Rome, 1907); treaty Austria-Hungary, February 11, 1906, Vol. XVIII (Rome, 1930).

16 As a result, a special provision of that Act under the terms of which the railroads were compelled to afford an additional preference of five per cent to domestic suppliers remained rather ineffective. “Legge per l'esercizio delle reti mediterranea, adriatica e sicula, e per la costruzione delle strade ferrate complementari,” Raccolta ufficiale. Art. 21, LXXV, No. 3048 (April 27, 1885).Google Scholar

17 Einaudi, Giulio, Un principe mercante. Studio nell' espansione coloniale llaliana (Torino, 1900), p. 160Google Scholar . A translation into English of this fascinating essay in entrepreneurial economic history by the former President of the Italian Republic would seem very desirable.

18 Cf. Corbino, Epicarmo, Annali dell'economia italiana, Vol. V, 1901-1914 (Citta di Castello, 1938), pp. 423 et seq.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Annuario Statistico, 1905–1907, p. 840Google Scholar ; 1911, pp. 234-36; and 1915, pp. 313-14.

20 Croce, Benedetto, Storia d'ltalia dal 1871 al 1915 (Bari, 1953), p. 157. Croce himself was, of course, a case in point.Google Scholar

21 These participations were part of an agreement among the founders designed to preclude institutions like the Austrian Credit-Anstalt from competing with the Banca Commerciale in the field of Italian investment.

22 Pantaleoni, Maffeo, “La caduta del Credito Mobiliare Italiano,” Studi storici di economia (Bologna, 1936), pp. 26Iff.Google Scholar

23 Cf., for example, Banca Commerciale Italiana, 1904, Relazione del Consiglio d'Amministra-zione (Milan, 1905), p. 11.Google Scholar

24 The literature on the activities of the Italian banks during the period under review is very scant. There is nothing even remotely comparable to Pantaleoni's great study of the Credilo Mobiliare. The writer, however, had the privilege of access to at least a part of the archives of the Banca Commerciale.