Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Paying for the Liberal State
- Introduction: Paying for the Liberal State
- 1 Creating Legitimacy: Administering Taxation in Britain, 1815–1914
- 2 The Development of Public Finance in the Netherlands, 1815–1914
- 3 The Apogee and Fall of the French Rentier Regime, 1801–1914
- 4 The Evolution of Public Finances in Nineteenth-Century Germany
- 5 Public Finance in Austria-Hungary, 1820–1913
- 6 The Rise of the Fiscal State in Sweden, 1800–1914
- 7 Always on the Brink: Piedmont and Italy
- 8 Public Finance and the Rise of the Liberal State in Spain, 1808–1914
- 9 Public Finance in Portugal, 1796–1910
- 10 Conclusion: The Monetary, Fiscal, and Political Architecture of Europe, 1815–1914
- Index
- References
7 - Always on the Brink: Piedmont and Italy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Paying for the Liberal State
- Introduction: Paying for the Liberal State
- 1 Creating Legitimacy: Administering Taxation in Britain, 1815–1914
- 2 The Development of Public Finance in the Netherlands, 1815–1914
- 3 The Apogee and Fall of the French Rentier Regime, 1801–1914
- 4 The Evolution of Public Finances in Nineteenth-Century Germany
- 5 Public Finance in Austria-Hungary, 1820–1913
- 6 The Rise of the Fiscal State in Sweden, 1800–1914
- 7 Always on the Brink: Piedmont and Italy
- 8 Public Finance and the Rise of the Liberal State in Spain, 1808–1914
- 9 Public Finance in Portugal, 1796–1910
- 10 Conclusion: The Monetary, Fiscal, and Political Architecture of Europe, 1815–1914
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
After the end of Napoleonic Wars, the Italian peninsula was divided into eight independent states, plus the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, by then formally independent but belonging to the Austrian-Hungarian emperor. All these states but one, the Kingdom of Sardinia (which, in spite of its name, consisted mainly of Piedmont), pursued very conservative, small-state policies, with low taxation and low expenditure. By contrast, since the 1850s, Piedmont had been implementing an ambitious and expensive plan of modernization mostly funded with an increase in its sovereign debt to buttress its political ambitions. The latter were fulfilled in 1861, when Italy was unified for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire. The king of Sardinia became king of Italy, and the Piedmontese constitution, institutions, and economic policies were extended to the whole new state, with few exceptions and in most cases without any delay. Also, the budget policy of the newborn kingdom featured a strong continuity with the Piedmontese one, at least at the beginning. In its first years, Italy spent lavishly on infrastructures and army, funding itself with imports of capital. Predictably, it soon ran into serious financial troubles. Italy extricated itself with about a decade of harsh fiscal measures and managed to keep its budget more or less balanced from the mid-1870s onward. The revenue-GDP ratio grew until the mid-1890s, and on this ground, Italy would qualify as a fiscal state.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Paying for the Liberal StateThe Rise of Public Finance in Nineteenth-Century Europe, pp. 186 - 213Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010