¹ In Italy the proportion of traders rose from 2.8 to 8.7 per cent of the active population between 1881 and 1971; in the United States the respective proportions were 2.1 and 2.7 per cent. Sylos Labini, Paolo, Saggio sulle classi sociali (Bari: Laterza, 1974), 165.Google Scholar On the survival of small shopkeepers in the post-war period see Carmen Belloni, Maria, Luisa Bianco, Maria, Luciano, Adriana and Pichierri, Angelo, ‘Ceti medi e mobilitazione politica: il caso dei commercianti’, Quademi di Sociologia, Vol. 23, no. 3 (1974), 157–251Google Scholar; Berger, Suzanne, ‘The Uses of the Traditional Sector in Italy: Why Declining Classes Survive’, in Bechhofer, Frank and Elliot, Brian, eds, The Petite Bourgeoisie: Comparative Studies of the Uneasy Stratum (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1981), 71–89.Google Scholar

² On contemporary analyses of the relationship between Fascism and the lower middle classes, see Groppo, Bruno, ‘Classes moyennes et fascism italien: réflexions et analyses des contemporains’, in Möller, Horst, Raulet, Gérard and Wirsching, Andreas, eds., Gefährdete Mitte? Mittelschichten und politische Kultur zwischen den Weltkriegen: Italien, Frankreich und Deutschland (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke, 1993), 19–34.Google Scholar

³ Salvatorelli, Luigi, Nazionalfascismo (Turin: Gobetti, 1923).Google Scholar

⁴ De Felice, Renzo, Intervista sul Fascismo (original ed., Bari: Laterza, 1975Google Scholar; this edition Cles (Turin): Arnoldo Mondadori, 1992), 32–3.

⁵ Sylos Labini, Saggio sulle classi sociali.

⁶ ibid., 75–6.

⁷ Zamagni, Vera, ‘Dinamica e problemi della distribuzione commerciale al minuto tra il 1880 e la guerra mondiale’, in authors, various, Mercati e consumi: organizzazione e qualificazione del commercio in Italia dal XII al XX secolo. I Convegno Nazionale di Storia del Commercio in Italia (Bologna: Mulino, 1986), 615–16.Google Scholar This chapter summarises much of the information in Zamagni's book, Le distribuzione commerciale in Italia fra le due guerre (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1981).

⁸ Luiga Caglioti, Daniela, Il guadagno difficile. Commercianti napoletani nella seconda metà dell'ottocento (Bologna: Mulino, 1994), 49–51.Google Scholar

⁹ These quotations all come from an address by Baroni, Luigi, President of the Milan General Federation of Shopkeepers, to the Supreme Council of Commerce in 1913, but were typical of attacks throughout the period. Atti del Consiglio superiore del commercio 1913 (Rome: Ministero dell'Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio (MAIC), 1914), 331.Google Scholar

¹⁰ On the various types of consumer co-operatives, see Morris, Jonathan, The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan 1886–1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 140–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ ibid., 46–63.

¹² Nardi, A. C., Fisiologia commerciale (Saranno: 1891), 65, as cited in Zamagni, ‘Dinamica’, 619n.Google Scholar

¹³ ‘Il codice di commercio’, L'Esercente, Milan, 4 Oct. 1891; copies held in BNB.

¹⁴ See Morris, Political Economy, 123–5, 217–21.

¹⁵ This is an analysis based on attendances at the annual congresses of industrialists, commercial traders and retailers held between 1902 and 1913. Atti dei Congressi nazionali dei commercianti, esercenti ed industriali (various cities and publishers, 1902–13). For further details on this, and on retailers’ associations in the pre-war period, see Jonathan Morris, ‘Les Associations de Détaillants à la fin du dix-neuvième siècle en Italie’, Histoire, Economie et Société (forthcoming 1997).

¹⁶ The vote was granted to all males over 21 years of age who were deemed to be literate or who paid 19.50 lire in direct taxes (previously it had been restricted to all 25-year-old males who paid over 40 lire in direct taxes). Luigi Ballini, Pier, Le elezioni nella storia d'Italia dall'Unità al fascismo: profilo storico-statistico (Bologna: Mulino, 1988), 93–9.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Morris, Political Economy, 137–8nn.

¹⁸ On the reforms, see Mozzarelli, Cesare and Nespor, Stefano, ‘Amministrazione e mediazione degli interessi: le Camere di commercio’, in Istituto per la Scienza dell‘Amministrazione Pubblica, Archivio n.s. 3. L‘Amministrazione nella storia modema (Milan: Giuffré, 1985), vol. 2, 1,669–72Google Scholar; Malatesta, Maria, ‘Stato liberale e rappresentanza dell'economia. Le Camere di commercio’, Italia contemporanea, Vol. 171 (1988), 39–40, 56–8.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Atti del Consiglio dell'industria e del commercio – Sessione dell'anno 1910 (Rome: MAIC, 1910). On the Consiglio superiore and its predecessors, see Giorgio Vecchio, ‘Il Consiglio dell'industria e commercio e la rappresentazione degli interessi fra ‘800 e ‘900’, in Mozzarelli, Cesare, ed., Economia e corporazioni (Milan: Giuffré, 1988), 305–25.Google Scholar

²⁰ On the organisation of the 1913 elections, see the material in ACS, MAIC div. Commercio intemo 1866–1919, b.16, f.105.

²¹ One example is the Società fra industriali, negozianti ed esercenti di Parma. This was founded in 1889, the year of the local government franchise extension. The Società's support for the ‘modernisation’ programme of the city's Democratic bloc was rewarded by the construction of a new public slaughter house, the reform of the local sales duty to protect the interests of artisans and the subsidising of electricity supplies to small shopkeepers. Sorba, Carlotta, L'eredità delle mura. Un caso di municipalismo democratico (Parma 1889–1914) (Venice: Marsilio, 1993), 31–2, 65, 139–40, 148–9, 186.Google Scholar

²² Atti del IV. Congresso dei commercianti ed industriali italiani. Venezia 25–30 ottobre 1905 (Venice: Tip. comm. Romolo Pilla, 1906), 243–58; ‘Le necessità amministrative degli esercenti e commercianti’, L'Esercente, 23 Dec. 1904.Google Scholar

²³ Morris, , Political Economy, 62, 145.Google Scholar

²⁴ Atti del Consiglio superiore del commercio, 1913, 162–72, 331, 335.

²⁵ On the difficulties of the application and collection of the tax, see the material in ACS, MAIC div. Commercio interno 1866–1919, b.12, f.81.

²⁶ ‘I contraccolpi della guerra e i provvedimenti per attenuare gli effetti’, Città di Milano, Milan, Aug. 1914, 6.

²⁷ In Bologna, the council imported coal, set up its own bakeries and even ran a fishing fleet at Viareggio, while similar initiatives in Milan included the establishment of cheap restaurants. Nazario Sauro Onofri, ‘Le Lega negli anni della Prima guerra mondiale’, in Fabbri, Fabio, ed., Il movimento cooperativo nella storia d'Italia 1854–1975 (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1979), 231–4Google Scholar; Punzo, Maurizio, La Giunta Caldara. L'amministrazione comunale di Milano negli anni 1914–1920 (Ban: Cariplo/Laterza, 1986), 60–4.Google Scholar

²⁸ ibid., 122.

²⁹ See the many shopkeeper protests on the occasion of the constitution of a national federation of aziende in ACS, Comuni b.1098.

³⁰ ‘Le commissioni di sorveglianza’, La Panificazione, Milan, 6 June 1917 (copies in BNB).

³¹ See the debates on the need for an amnesty for contravenors at the Atti del XIII Congresso nazionale fra commercianti, industriali ed esercenti: 11–15 settembre 1921 (Trieste: Tipografia Sociale, 1922), 225–9.

³² Bianchi, Roberto, ‘Une rivolta popolare del “biennio rosso”. I moti per il caroviveri a Firenze’, Passato e Presente, Vol. 13, no. 35 (1995), 69.Google Scholar

³³ Bianchi, ‘Una rivolta popolare’, 71. This is the best published analysis of the riots as they affected a city. A valuable but as yet unpublished analysis is that of John Foot, ‘“Eliminated as a Class?“. Milanese Socialism, Consumers and Shopkeepers during the period of the Cost of Living riots, June-July 1919’. My thanks to Dr Foot for allowing me to see this manuscript.

³⁴ Bianchi, , ‘Una rivolta popolare’, 68–9, 74–6Google Scholar; Foot, , ‘Eliminated as a Class’, 7.Google Scholar

³⁵ ‘Cronaca di Milano: giomata calma e saccheggio legale’, Avanti!, Milan, 8 July 1919.

³⁶ Corner, Paul, Fascism in Ferrara 1915–1925 (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), 64.Google Scholar

³⁷ On the ambiguous attitudes of various elements on the Left, see Foot, ‘Eliminated as a Class’, 5, 9–12, 20–4. On the crowd and the Camera di lavoro, see also Bianchi, ‘Una rivolta popolare’, 72–4.

³⁸ ‘Il pericolo’, L'Esercente, 10 July 1919.

³⁹ One of innumerable examples is ‘Ammaestramento’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Treviglio, 1, 8 (Dec. 1920), (copies in BNC).

⁴⁰ See the material in ASM, gab. Prefettura, 296, Reclami vari per l'aumento dei prezzi.

⁴¹ Legge, 30 Sept. 1920, n.1349.

⁴² On the abolition of the bread subsidy, see Forsyth, Douglas, The Crisis of Liberal Italy. Monetary and Financial Policy 1914–20 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 241–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴³ A valuable description of Giolitti's measures is given in Unione delle Camere di Commercio e Industria Italiane, Sull'applicazione delle norme contenute nel disegno di legge portante disposizioni relative al commercio e provvedimenti contro l'aumento eccessivo dei prezzi (Roma: Tipografia della Camera dei Deputati, 1920).

⁴⁴ Atti, ‘Libera contrattazione o prezzi fissi?’, L'Esercente Italiano, 16 July 1927. It is interesting to note that this observation was made in a debate seven years after the introduction of price labels on all merchandise.

⁴⁵ In the same article Avanti! recounted how shopkeepers had successfully mounted a demonstration against a Prefectural decree that would have required them to display prices on all their goods. ‘Cronaca di Milano: giomata calma e sacheggio legale’, Avanti!, 8 July 1919.

⁴⁶ Frascani, Paolo, Politica Economia e Finanza Pubblica in Italia nel Primo Dopoguerra (1918–22) (Napoli: Giannini, 1975), 40;Google ScholarBarbieri, Laura, Commercianti a Bologna tra liberalismo e fascismo, Rivista di Storia Contemporanea, Vol. 17, no. 3 (1988), 391.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Zamagni, , ‘Dinamica’, 608.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ The shopkeepers‘ journal in Treviglio described Giolitti's measures as a ‘healthy and sane reaction against the dishonesty of speculators amongst both producer and intermediaries’. ‘Contro i vampiri’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 6 (23 June 1920).

⁴⁹ For reasons which will become clear in the next section, these views are best conveyed in the publications of the United Chambers of Commerce such as Unione delle Camere di Commercio e Industria Italiane, Il problema del costo delta vita (Rome: Stab. Tip. Carlo Colombo, 1923).

⁵⁰ ‘La parola d'ordine’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 3, no. 1 (Sept. 1922).

⁵¹ Annali del Commercio 1920–21, Atti del Consiglio superiore del commercio – Sessione ordinaria del 1920 (Rome: MAIC, 1921), 96; Annali del Commercio 1920–21, Atti del Comitato permanente di commercio (25–30 gennaio 1921) (Rome: MAIC, 1921), 131–2.

⁵² The vice-president of the Unioncamere, Alfredo Fortunati, outlined the evolution of the project in his address to the 1921 congress of the Federazione Commerciale Industriale Italiana. Atti del XIII Congresso nazionale fra commercianti, industriali ed esercenti, 11–15 settembre 1921 (Trieste: Tipografia Sociale, 1922), 158–62.

⁵³ L'Organizzazione commerciale romana e nazionale (Rome: Società Generale fra i Negozianti ed Industriali di Roma, 1933), 46–52. The one exception was Lombardy, where the leading Milanese associations may have resented the opportunism of their colleagues in the capital.

⁵⁴ ibid., 57.

⁵⁵ ibid., 65–74.

⁵⁶ Castelnuovo, Arturo di, ed., La tutela dell'avviamento ‘Proprietà Commerciale’ (Rome: Tip. del Genio Civile, 1934)Google Scholar, provides an excellent guide to the issue and includes contributions from all sides of the debate.

⁵⁷ See ‘Dalle città d'Italia’, Piccolo Esercente, Rome, 1 Jan. 1922 (copies held in BNC), which notes the formation of various associations, including a shopkeeper tenants’ association in Verona that became a leading player in the PICE. Details of the campaign against high rents and evictions waged by a Milan Federation of Small Proprietors (again founded in rivalry to existing retailer associations) can be found in ASM Gab Pref. 296 Agitazione per il rincaro degli affiti dei negozi, studi ecc.

⁵⁸ ‘La proprietà commerciale’, Piccolo Esercente, 16 Feb. 1922. The same claim was made by the Lombard Small Proprietors’ Federation against the long-established Milanese Shopkeepers’ Federation. ‘Con la vettura Negri’, L'Esercente Lombarda, Milan, 25 Jan. 1926.

⁵⁹ ‘Rompiamo i ponti!’, Piccolo Esercente, 23 Feb. 1922.

⁶⁰ ‘PICE’, L'Esercente Italiano, Rome, 14 May 1925 (copies held in BNC). Zamagni, La Distribuzione commerciale, 84.

⁶¹ ‘Primo Congresso nazionale’, Piccolo Esercente, 12 Oct. 1922.

⁶² ‘Memoriale delle Confederazione Nazionali Piccoli Industriali, Commercianti ed Esercenti’, ibid., 26 Jan. 1922.

⁶³ Biagio Brancaccio (President of the Rome hairdressers’ association), ‘Inamovibilità e avviamento commerciale’, ibid., 1 Jan. 1922.

⁶⁴ ‘La piccola industria e la proprietà commerciale’, ibid., 18 May 1922.

⁶⁵ ‘Primo Congresso nazionale’, ibid., 12 Oct. 1922.

⁶⁶ ibid., 9, 16 Feb. 1922. For a discussion of the definition of the petite bourgeoisie as those who work their own capital, see Geoffrey Crossick and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, ‘Shopkeepers, Master Artisans and the Historian’, in Crossick, Geoffrey and Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard, eds, Shopkeepers and Master Artisans in Nineteenth-century Europe (London: Methuen, 1984), 6–10Google Scholar; and my comments in the introduction to this issue, ‘Introduction’, Contemporary European History, Vol. 5, no. 3 (1996), 281.

⁶⁷ ‘Verso la nostra rovina: Mostruosità del Fisco’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 4 (1920).

⁶⁸ See the comments to this effect in ‘Rompiamo i ponti!’, Piccolo Esercente, 23 Feb. 1922.

⁶⁹ ‘Primo maggio’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 5 (May 1920).

⁷⁰ ‘Il nostro travolgente comizio al Teatro Nazionale’, ‘Il comizio dei … sanluigini’, Piccolo Esercente, 25 May 1922.

⁷¹ ‘Primo Congresso nazionale’, ibid., 12 Oct. 1922.

⁷² A series of articles justifying political neutrality appeared in Piccolo Esercente, 9 March 1922.

⁷³ Barbieri, , ‘Commercianti a Bologna’, 394–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Among many articles on this theme, see ‘I macellai pagono le tasse … e il Comune macello’, Il Commercio Zootecnico: Organo del Consorzio Proprietari Macellai di Milano e Provincia, Milan, 31 March 1922 (copies in BNB).

⁷⁵ ‘Nuovo orario di chiusura degli esercizi pubblici’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 2 (Feb. 1920); ‘Atti ufficiale dell'Associazione’, ibid., Vol. 1, no. 6 (June 1920); ‘Assemblea ordinaria dell'Associzione Esercenti’, ibid., Vol. 2, no. 1 (May 1921).

⁷⁶ ‘L'Assemblea generale dell'Associazione Esercenti’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 4 (April 1920).

⁷⁷ ‘Gli esercenti e commercianti di fronte alle elezioni’, L'Esercente, 24 April 1921.

⁷⁸ ‘Giustizia di Popolo’, Popolo d'Italia, Milan, 5 July 1919.

⁷⁹ Roberto Ariotti, ‘I “piccoli commercianti” attraverso l'era fascista’, Il Mulino, 1981, 626; Foot, ‘Extinguished as a Class’, 7; Benito Mussolini, ‘Triplice Lezione’, Popolo d'Italia, 7 July 1919.

⁸⁰ ‘Ammaestramenti’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 1, no. 8 (Dec. 1920); ‘Elezioni politiche’, ibid., Vol. 2, no. 1 (May 1921).

⁸¹ ‘Transformate i vostri negozi, Modemizzate le vostre idee’, La Panificazione, 4 Sept. 1922.

⁸² ‘Al “Lavoro d'Italie”’, ibid., 7 Oct. 1922. The idea of selling products with similar origins may explain why so many Italian bakeries now stock comflakes.

⁸³ On the strike, see Granata, Ivano, La nascita del sindacato fascista. L'esperienza di Milano (Bari: De Donato, 1981), 197–200.Google Scholar For the failure to acknowledge the Fascists’ role see ‘Ancora per Angelo Bocchiola’, La Panificazione, 19 June 1922; ‘Sui nuovi sindacati operai panettieri’, ibid., 7 Aug. 1922; ‘Il nuovo concordato stipulato fra la Mutua Proprietari Fomo e il Nuovo Sindacato Operai Panettieri di Milano’, ibid., 7 Oct. 1922.

⁸⁴ ‘La crisi comunale’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 3, no. 4 (Dec. 1922); ‘Assemblea generale dei soci’, ibid., Vol. 4, no. 1 (Feb. 1923).

⁸⁵ See the material in ACS, PS 1922, b.61 Bergamo.

⁸⁶ ‘La Camera di Commercio di Napoli occupata dai commercianti al dettaglio’, Piccolo Esercente, 30 Nov. 1922.

⁸⁷ ‘Gli esercenti e commercianti di fronte alle elezioni’, L'Esercente, 24 April 1921.

⁸⁸ ‘Per la sana economia Statale’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Anno 3, no. 1 (Sept. 1922).

⁸⁹ ‘Alleanza Parlamentare Economica’, Piccolo Esercente, 28 Sept. 1922.

⁹⁰ ‘Gli esercenti e commercianti di fronte alle elezioni’, L’Esercente, 24 April 1921.

⁹¹ ‘Il comizio dei … sanluigini’, Piccolo Esercente, 25 May 1922.

⁹² ‘Elezioni politiche?’, Piccolo Esercente, 19 Oct. 1922.

⁹³ ibid.

⁹⁴ By contrast the white-collar workers formed 15.7 per cent of the party and 3.2 per cent of the active population. Marco Revelli, ‘Italy’, in Mühlberger, Detlef, ed., The Social Basis of European Fascist Movements (London: Croom Helm, 1987), 7, 18–19.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ ‘Necessità di governo’, L'Esercente, 9 Nov. 1922; ‘Libertà’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 4, no. 1 (Feb. 1923).

⁹⁶ R. D. Legge, II gennaio 1923, n. 123.

⁹⁷ See the tone of expectancy in ‘Libertà’, L'Esercente Trevigliese, Vol. 4, no. 1 (Feb. 1923).

⁹⁸ On the Fascist syndicates, see Cordova, Ferdinando, Le origini dei sindacati fascisti (Bari: Laterza, 1974).Google Scholar On the relationship between syndicalism and employers’ federations, see Hugh Adler, Franklin, Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 314–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹⁹ The article by Chiaudano entitled ‘Pace, pace, pace’ was republished in ‘Ancora una volta si riconosce la bontà del nostro programma’, L'Esercente Italiano, 25 Sept. 1924. A copy of an article detailing Cartoni's actions was held in Cabinet file on the Confederation. The article, signed ‘Un Fascista’, is ‘La Confederazione del Commercio vuol chiamarsi “fascista”’, L'Esercente Lombardo, 25 Jan. 1926. The story was repeated in ‘La Confederazione del Commercio’, L’Esercente Italiano, 6 March 1926.

¹⁰⁰ Torquato Foschini, a member of the PICE executive who went on to become its President in November 1924, published four key articles critical of Fascism and the Confederation's links to the movement. ‘Noi e la politici’, L'Esercente Italiano, 20 Aug., 4 Sept., 11 Sept., 18 Sept. 1924.

¹⁰¹ ‘Chiusura e restrizione di orari negli esercizi pubblici’, L'Esercente Italiano, 22 Jan. 1925. The PICE journal mocked Chiaudano's attempts to regain Fascist favour. ‘L'affanosa corsa ai ripari’, ibid., 2 July 1925; but in the same month asserted that it had complete faith in the future, with the country in the hands of Mussolini. ‘Chiose e commenti’, ibid., 30 July 1925.

¹⁰² The text of the bill and the alterations made to it in committee prior to being dropped are reprinted in Castelnuovo, La tutela dell'aviamento commerciale, 47–56.

¹⁰³ ‘La tutela della “proprietà commerciale”’, L'Esercente Italiano, 26 Dec. 1926.

¹⁰⁴ See the comments of Cartoni, in Castelnuovo, La tutela dell'aviamento commerciale, 46. For an example of this step by step approach, ‘Urge sistemare gli affitti commerciali’, L'Esercente, 8 Nov. 1925.

¹⁰⁵ ‘Per la “Proprietà Commerciale”’, L'Esercente Italiano, 26 June 1925; ‘Appasionato dibattito per la “Proprietà Commerciale”. Responsibilità’, ibid., 29 Oct. 1925; 'La tutela della “Proprietà Commerciale”. La iniziativa parlamentare’, ibid., 16 Dec. 1925.

¹⁰⁶ Documentation on this is held in ACS PCM 1926 3–7–31.

¹⁰⁷ See the Appunto per S.E. il Capo di Governo, 25 March 1926, outlining the two confederations’ proposals, over which Mussolini scribbled ‘No’ in red pencil, and Suardo, Under-Secretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, to Belluzzo, Minister for the National Economy, 19 April 1926, confirming this in ACS PCM 1926 3–7–31.

¹⁰⁸ This was the reason the PICE did not seek recognition. ‘Sindacati riconosciuti e sindacati liberi’, Esercente Italiano, 17 April 1926.

¹⁰⁹ Federazione Nazionale Fascista dei Commercianti to S.E. il Ministro dell'Interno, 1 Oct. 1926, ACS Comuni b.1994.

¹¹⁰ R. D. Legge 8 maggio 1924, n. 750.

¹¹¹ In Bologna, for instance, retailers held only seven of the 18 commercial seats, and artisans just five of the 18 allocated to agriculture and industry. Barbieri, ‘Commercianti a Bologna’, 400–1.

¹¹² Legge 18 aprile 1926, n. 731.

¹¹³ R. D. Legge II gennaio 1923 n. 138.

¹¹⁴ I include in this category municipalities run by Royal Commissioners appointed following the dissolving of the Council. For two examples, see the material relating to Pisa and Florence in ACS. Comuni 1922–24, b.1636.

¹¹⁵ –La nostra agitazione: Assemblea generale straordinaria del consorzio’, Il Commercio Zootecnico, 8 Aug. 1924. The protest culminated in a meeting with the Under-Secretary of finance, after which a compromise tariff was agreed. ‘I covegno a Roma e i colloqui col Ministero Nava’, ibid., 15 Sept. 1924.

¹¹⁶ ‘Le nuove pressione tributarie’, ibid., 16 May 1924.

¹¹⁷ An index of prices, taking 1913 as 100, gives overall values in the two halves of the years 1923–5 of 495, 496, 517, 536, 594 and 623. Catalono, Franco, Fascismo e Piccola Borghesia (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1979), 286.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Zamagni, ‘Dinamica’, 608.

¹¹⁹ Circular to all Prefects from Minister of the Interior (Federzoni), 27 Oct. 1924, ACS Comuni 1922–24, b.1636.

¹²⁰ Catalono, Fascismo e piccola borghesia, 287.

¹²¹ The telegram was reproduced on the front page of La Panificazione, 29 March 1924.

¹²² Mussolini to Prefect, Telegram, 13 March 1924, ASM Gab. Pref. 325.

¹²³ See the archive material in ACS PS 1923, b.57 C.1 Arte bianca, and ASM Gab. Pref. 325.

¹²⁴ ‘Il prezzo del pane a Torino’, La Panificazione, 30 April 1924. On events in the three cities, see also ‘Gli spacci fascisti in Roma’, ibid., 17 Feb. 1924; ‘I Panifici dell'Azienda Comunale di Milano’, ibid., 12 Dec. 1924.

¹²⁵ Minister for the National Economy, Belluzzo, to Head of State, Mussolini, 15 May 1928, ACS PCM, 1931–33, 3–1–8–4147.

¹²⁶ See Prefect of Ravenna to Ministry of Interior, 14 Sept. 1926; Prefect of Pesaro to Ministry of Interior, 14 Sept. 1926; both in ACS PS, 1927.

¹²⁷ ‘Richiamo alla realtà’, La Panificazione, 12 Aug. 1925. See also the telegram from Luraschi to the President of the Council of Ministers, Mussolini, ACS Comuni b.1994, 13 Sept. 1925. For reports of bakers who were members of the Fascist syndicate, sometimes even of the party itself, taking part in protests, see Prefect of Salemo to Ministry of the Interior, 21 Sept. 1926, ACS PS, 1927.

¹²⁸ Mussolini to all Prefects of the Realm, encoded telegram, 29 June 1926, 19:00 hours, ACS PCM, 1926, 3–16–2487.

¹²⁹ In Turin, for example, a commission set up by the Prefect sought to persuade the authorities to allow the Alleanza Cooperativa to set up kiosks in the municipal markets and to develop a home delivery service in association with the city's manufacturers. Prefecture of Torino to Presidency of the Council of Ministers, 14 Aug. 1926, ACS, PCM 1926, 3–16–2487.

¹³⁰ ‘Annona di Roma: La sorveglianza sui negozi di generi alimentari’, L'Esercente Italiano, 7 Aug. 1926.

¹³¹ Quoted in ‘La concorde campagna della stampa contro il commercio a dettaglio’, L'Esercente Italiano, 30 Oct. 1926.

¹³² Quoted in ‘Caro-vita ed Esercenti’, L'Esercente Italiano, 24 July 1926.

¹³³ See his speech, reprinted in Il Probelema del costo della vita (Rome: Unione delle Camere di Commercio e Industria Italiane, 1923), 9–22.

¹³⁴ Atti del Consiglio superiore dell‘Economia Nazionale – Sessione V, novembre 1926 (Rome: Provveditorato Generale dello Stato, 1927), 86–114. Only one speaker went against the grain by arguing that the problem could not be caused by an excess of retailers alone. He pointed out that prices in Italy were still lower than those in other countries when measured in relation to gold, suggesting that the real difficulty arose from the mismatch between consumer expectations and the failure to generate the national income needed to meet these. ibid., 138–41.

¹³⁵ ibid., 123.

¹³⁶ ibid., 111.

¹³⁷ ibid., 116.

¹³⁸ Il Problemo del costo della vita, 54–5.

¹³⁹ ‘L'ingiusta campagna contro i commercianti al dettaglio’, L'Esercente Italiano, 14 Aug. 1926; ‘La campagna denigratoria contro il piccolo commercio’, L'Esercente, 5 Sept. 1926; ‘Non torniamo all’ antico!! (A proposito di libertà commerciale)’, ibid., 7 Nov. 1926; ‘A proposito di prezzi al minuto’, ibid., 28 Nov. 1926.

¹⁴⁰ ‘I negozianti sono anche incolpati di essere in troppi’, L'Esercente Italiano, 20 Nov. 1926.

¹⁴¹ Belluzzo, the Minister for National Economy, made clear that the loudest objections to any such regulatory scheme would come from shopkeepers themselves, in his memo to Federzoni, the Interior Minister, asking for his full support during the introduction of such a measure. Federzoni obliged with a circular to Prefects that presented the probable opposition of shopkeepers in even starker terms, and instructed them that this should be ignored, given the ‘chaotic abnormality’ in the distribution sector. Belluzzo to Federzoni, 15 Oct. 1926; Ministero dell'Interno: Direzione generale dell'amministrazione civile. Circolare a Sig. Prefetti del Regno. Limitazione nel numero dei negozi al dettaglio, 8 Nov. 1926. Both in ACS Comuni b.1991.

¹⁴² See, for example, the praise for Rossi's chairing of a 1898 meeting of a national traders’ congress in Turin in L'Esercente where Rossi, by then a deputy, was described as being ‘loved by shopkeepers as one of their best friends’. ‘Il Congresso degli esercenti e commercianti Italiani’, L'Esercente, 28 Aug. 1898.

¹⁴³ ‘La limitazione degli esercizi’, Il Commercio Zootecnico, 23 March 1923; ‘Il Convegno alla Federazione Esercenti per la limitazione degli esercizi’, ibid., 4 May 1923.

¹⁴⁴ Objections to blanket control were made in ‘Sulla limmitazione degli spacci di distribuzione delle merci al consumatore’, La Panificazione, 31 Jan. 1924. For the attitude of bakers in 1928, see the memo summarising their position attached to Ministero dell'Interno. Gabinetto di S.E. il Ministro. to On. le Dir. Gen. dell'Amm/ne Civile, 15 April 1928, ACS Comuni b.2125, 1928–30.

¹⁴⁵ R. D. Legge 16 dicembre 1926, n. 2174.

¹⁴⁶ Ministero dell'Economia Nazionale, Comitato centrale annonario, to Presidenti dei Comitati intersindacali provinciali in funzione di comitati dei prezzi e, per conoscenza, ai Sigg Prefetti Ogg: Disciplina dei prezzi, Rome, 10 Dec. 1927, ACS Comuni b.2125 1928–1930.

¹⁴⁷ Ministero dell'Economia Nazionale, Comitato Centrale Annonario to Sigg. Preffetti del Regno, Presidenti dei comitati provinciali intersindacali di azione corporative, 28 Nov. 1927, ACS Comuni b.2125.

¹⁴⁸ ibid.

¹⁴⁹ Presidente Generale della Confederazione dei Commercianti Fascisti to S.E. Ministro delle Corporazioni, Rome, 20 May 1927, ACS, PCM 1927, 3–16–2361.

¹⁵⁰ In 1927 this function was passed to the Provincial Intersyndical Committee, i.e. is the representatives of the various Fascist producers’ and workers’ associations.

¹⁵¹ Documentation relating to this project is held in ACS, PCM 1927, 1–1–22–3631. The Ministry of National Economy was outraged at a proposal which would be ‘like entrusting prisoners with the function of jailers’, as was the Ministry of Interior which further pointed out that such an arrangement would prevent Prefects exercising a disciplinary power over the conflict of interests between vendor and consumer. Ministro dell'Economia Nazionale (Belluzzo) to Sottosegretario di Stato di Presidenza del Consiglio (Suardo), 19 Sept. 1927; Ministero dell'Interno: Appunto sullo schema di regio decreto legge che conferisce poteri alle associazioni professionali dei commercianti per la disciplina del commercio di vendita dei generi non calmierati, Roma, 17 Sept. 1927. Both in this file.

¹⁵² Schema di R. decreto – legge relativo ai poteri di disciplinamento del commercio – esame in merito della Confederazione del Commercio, 8 Sept. 1927, ACS, PC 1927, 1–1–22–3631.

¹⁵³ ‘Coi piedi di piombo’, L'Esercente, Milan, 16 Dec. 1926.

¹⁵⁴ ‘Palloni … sgonfiati’, L'Esercente, Milan, 31 March 1927.

¹⁵⁵ The PICE and its newspaper had officially separated in Oct. 1925, presumably in order to protect both from being characterised as sources of ‘opposition’ to the regime. ‘La indipendenza del nostro giornale’, L'Esercente Italiano, 15 Oct. 1925.

¹⁵⁶ Secondo Consiglio nazionale (Roma, 12–13 dicembre 1928) (Rome: Confederazione Nazionale Fascista dei Commercianti, 1929), 118–57.

¹⁵⁷ Zamagni, See, ‘La distribuzione commerciale’, 125–38.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ ibid., 25.

¹⁵⁹ Catalano's book, inspired by a passage in Gramsci's writings, makes this case. Catalono, Fascismo e Piccola Borghesia. It is also advanced by Sylos Labini in Saggio sulle classi sociali, 76.