Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The Time Series and the Interpretations
- 1A The Measurement of Production Movements
- 2 The Investment Cycle
- 3 The Consumption Cycle and the “Crisis” of the 1880s
- 4 Protection and Migration
- 5 Railways
- 6 North and South
- 6A North and South: A Sectoral Analysis
- 7 The State of Play
- APPENDICES: TARIFFS, TRADE, MIGRATION, AND GROWTH
- References
- Index
7 - The State of Play
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The Time Series and the Interpretations
- 1A The Measurement of Production Movements
- 2 The Investment Cycle
- 3 The Consumption Cycle and the “Crisis” of the 1880s
- 4 Protection and Migration
- 5 Railways
- 6 North and South
- 6A North and South: A Sectoral Analysis
- 7 The State of Play
- APPENDICES: TARIFFS, TRADE, MIGRATION, AND GROWTH
- References
- Index
Summary
Italy and the world economy: cyclical movements
The economic development of post-Unification Italy cannot be understood by examining Italy alone. Italy was already then part of a wider world characterized by the ready movement of goods, ideas, men and money; it developed as and to the extent that the mobile resources of that transnational economy chose to locate on Italian soil.
From 1861 to 1913 Italy's total product grew, even in per-capita terms, relatively steadily. It did not always grow from year to year: agriculture was the dominant sector, especially in the early years, and total product fell if bad weather or outbreaks of disease caused poor harvests. But these downturns were short-lived, and over the medium term agricultural production grew without significant interruption.
The longer cycle was in the industrial sector; it grew stronger over time, and became much the major source of aggregate production movements. Within that sector, the cycle was specific to the industries that produced durable goods – construction, engineering – and those that supplied their raw materials. The dominant economic cycle in post-Unification Italy was an investment cycle.
The upswings of that investment cycle were the quinquennia from Unification to 1865 and again from 1869 to 1874, under the Right; the decade from 1879 to 1887, dominated politically by Depretis; and the even longer period, from 1896 to the War, dominated by Giolitti.
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- Information
- The Reinterpretation of Italian Economic HistoryFrom Unification to the Great War, pp. 241 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011