² For a recent discussion of the different statistical series, conducted in connection with the Gerschenkron thesis regarding Italian industrial growth, see Federico, G. and Toniolo, G., ‘Italy’, in Sylla, R. and Toniolo, G. (eds), Patterns of European Industrialisation: the Nineteenth Century (London, 1991).Google Scholar

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⁵ See O'Brien, P. K. and Toniolo, G., ‘The poverty of Italy and the backwardness of its agriculture before 1914’, in Campbell, B. M. S. and Overton, M. (eds), Land, Labour and Livestock. Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity (New York, 1991).Google Scholar

⁶ See, for 1911 data, Zamagni, V., Industrializzazione e squilibri regionali in Italia (Bologna, 1978)Google Scholar and more generally, Federico and Toniolo, ‘Italy’.

⁷ These were eighteenth-century public institutions, such as the Banco delle Due Sicilie, Naples; the Banco di Santo Spirito, Rome; the Monte dei Paschi, Siena; and the Compagnia di San Paolo, Turin. See de Simone, E., Alle origini del sistema bancario italiano (Naples, 1993).Google Scholar

⁸ During the 1850s very few commercial and banking firms in Milan had capitals of 1m. Austrian lire (0.86 million Italian lire) or more. See Cova, A. and Galli, A. M., La Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde dalla fondazione al 1940 (Bari, 1991), vol. I, p. 79.Google Scholar

⁹ See Gille, B., Histoire de la maison Rotschild (Geneva, 1967), vol. I.Google Scholar

¹⁰ A savings bank was founded in Venice in 1822, but was related to, and depended upon, a municipal pawnshop.

¹¹ See Horn, H. O., A History of Savings Banks (Oxford, 1947).Google Scholar

¹² For instance, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany did not issue funded debt until 1848.

¹³ In 1876 parliament established the Postal Savings Service. Its deposits went to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a branch of the public administration that used these funds chiefly for long-term loans to municipalities.

¹⁴ See Gille, B., La banque en France au XIX siècle (Geneva, 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ Values are expressed in Italian lire. During the second half of the nineteenth century the lira had the same value as the French franc, although differences of up to 15–17% occurred when Italy was off the gold standard.

¹⁶ Regarding commercial law, see Cottrell, P. L., Industrial Finance 1830–1914 (London and New York, 1980).Google Scholar The sleeping partnership with shares (‘commandite par actions’), that in France was unregulated beyond a general statute, in Italy was subject to the same government concessionary authorisation process as corporate companies. Consequently this form of company experienced no development in Italy, whereas it was widespread in France. Furthermore, when it was evident in 1866 that the corporate concessionary regime was about to be abolished in France, it was reinforced in Italy. See also Bailleux de Marisy, M., ‘Les sociétés de credit en France et à l'étranger’, Revue des deux Mondes, 15 (1872).Google Scholar

¹⁷ The position of Italy in the international capital market is well described by De Cecco, M., L'Italia e il sistema finanziario intemazionale 1861–1914 (Bari, 1990).Google Scholar

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¹⁹ The second universal bank, in rank of importance, was the Banca Generale, founded in 1871 and which survived until 1894.

²⁰ See Doria, G., Debiti e navi. La compagnia di Rubattino 1839–1881 (Genoa, 1990).Google Scholar

²¹ Quoted in Polsi, , Alle origini, pp. 129–30.Google Scholar

²² Another bank of issue, authorised in 1860, had been established in Florence in 1863.

²³ During the 1860s a heated controversy divided French economists which led to the famous Inquiry Committee that investigated the behaviour of the Banque of France in connection with trade and industry. See Plessis, A., La politique de la Banque de France de 1851 à 1870 (Geneva, 1985).Google Scholar

²⁴ The Banca Romana had joined in 1870.

²⁵ For a recent discussion of currency management after 1874, see Meana, A. Ripa di and Sarcinelli, M., ‘Unione monetaria, competizione valutaria e controllo della moneta: è d'aiuto la storia italiana?’, in de Cecco, M. (ed.), Monete in concorrenza (Bologna, 1992).Google Scholar For the banks of issue and the gold standard, see Frataianni, M. and Spinelli, F., ‘Italy in the gold standard period, 1861–1914.’, in Bordo, M. and Schwartz, A. (eds), A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard (Chicago, 1984).Google Scholar

²⁶ The loan was negotiated in London by Hambro; see de Cecco, , L'Italia e il sistema finanziario and Berta, O., Capitali in gioco (Venice, 1990).Google Scholar

²⁷ Di Meana and Sarcinelli, ‘Unione monetaria’, underline this aspect. On the relationship between banks of issues and other banks, see also Sannucci, V., ‘The establishment of a central bank: Italy in the XIX century’, in de Cecco, M. and Giovannini, A. (eds), A European Central Bank? Perspectives on Monetary Unification after Ten Years of EMS (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar and Gonfalonieri, A., Banca e industria in Italia 1894–1906 (Bologna, 1979), vol. I.Google Scholar

²⁸ Goldsmith's FIR for Italy in 1881 is just above 50% of the average of the FIR for five, more developed economies: Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the USA. See Cotula, A. M. Biscaini and Ciocca, P., ‘Le strutture finanziarie: aspetti quantitativi di lungo periodo 1870–1970’, in Vicarelli, F. (ed.), Capitale industriale e capitale finanziario: il caso italiano (Bologna, 1979).Google Scholar

²⁹ I have identified and listed 3,240 shareholders that held, perhaps, 80% of the total of bank shares.

³⁰ See Crafts, N. F. R., ‘Gross National Product in Europe 1870–1910’, Explorations in Economic History, 20 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ Italy at the end of the nineteenth century displayed many features of a country with a backward financial structure: prevalence of primary securities in financial assets, strong prevalence of banks among financial intermediaries, and banks of issue constituted some of the major banking institutions. See Goldsmith, R. W., Financial Structure and Development (New Haven, 1969).Google Scholar

³² See Bonelli, F., La Banca d'Italia dal 1894 al 1913 (Bari, 1991).Google Scholar

³³ Gerschenkron, A., Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, Mass., 1962).Google Scholar

³⁴ Cohen, J., ‘Italy 1861–1914’, in Cameron, R. (ed.), Banking and Economic Development. Some Lessons of History (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

³⁵ These are the conclusions of Gonfalonieri, A., Banca e industria in Italia dalla crisi del 1907 all'agosto 1914 (Milan, 1982).Google Scholar For his part, Hertner, Il capitale, stresses the role of German directors in the great Italian universal banks in shaping policy towards industrial firms.

³⁶ Bonelli, F., ‘Il capitalismo italiano. Linee generali di interpretazione’, in Storia d'Italia. Annali I (Turin, 1978)Google Scholar, concentrates on another important factor that secured Italian financial stability at the beginning of the twentieth century: the great flow of migrant remittances.