The Birth of I. R. I. and the Financial Reforms in Interwar Italy : From "Rescue" to "Cure" of the Mixed Banks

Ito Kanna

doi:10.20633/tochiseido.41.2_1

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

戦間期イタリアにおける金融再編とIRI(イリ)成立
戦間期イタリアにおける金融再編とIRI(イリ)設立
センカンキイタリアニオケルキンユウサイヘント IRI イリセツリツ

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Description

The Italian financial and industrial structure experienced great changes in the interwar period and they have formed the new industrial financing system and the IRI - State holding company system-lasting to the present day. The aim of this paper is to throw some light on the original intention of the birth of the IRI and its economic reorganizations in 1930's, by examining the policy of the "rescue of banks" and the functions of the public institutions that operated the State interventions toward the banks and industries in the period of crisis. The blueprint of the reforms written by the IRI shows that they considered the problem innate to the Italian economy existed in the capital allocation system: at that time, mixed banks and industry linked with each other intimately to make groups and in the group, investment was done haphazardly by top managers. The IRI was constructed with the intention of allocating capital effectively in order to help industrial reconstruction and economic development. Toward this purpose, it exercised a series of industrial and banking reforms that were designed for industrial rationalization in order to facilitate strategic operation and also to prevent excessive competition. Those reforms included disbanding large bank groups, which were done in the name of the rescue of large banks. It is obvious that there realized a drastic shift of policy from supporting the existing financial order at the expense of the State to creating a new system. It was made by IMI and IRI that have retained managemental autonomy from government despite its public nature, thanks to their competence of emitting bonds. This was due to the lessons of former public institutions in the 1920's that malfunctioned because of a lack of autonomy.

Journal

The Journal of Agrarian History

The Journal of Agrarian History 41 (2), 1-15, 1999

The Agrarian History Society (Renamed as The Political Economy and Economic History Society)