British wartime state intervention raised real wages while Italian workers’ real wages fell.

Evidence

Unlike Italy, in Britain the state’s eff orts in maintaining the levels of agricultural production and imports of consumption goods, rationing, and rent control raised the living expectations of the poorest, while public health and food quality improved (Procacci 2013, 48). While in Italy average real daily earnings decreased during the war years (falling continuously from 1915 to 1918), in Britain the average weekly real wages increased over the same period (rising continuously from 1913 to 1919). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the crucial comparative divergence between Britain’s wartime social contract and Italy’s collapse — central to Mattei’s argument that differing war outcomes shaped differing post-war austerity trajectories. — connects to: British wartime and postwar wage growth outpaced a full century of prior gains — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 359; Industrial profits soared in Italy during the war while workers starved. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1653; Fascist Italy drove industrial real wages to historic lows by 1936 — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1714 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Fascist Italy drove industrial real wages to historic lows by 1936 #exemplifies (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1714
• Italy’s war economy grew through massive state subsidies and directed industrial intervention. #qualifies (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653
• Italian austerity economists blamed wartime gains for working-class moral decline #contradicts (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1142