Industrial profits soared in Italy during the war while workers starved.

Evidence

Th e declared profi ts of the public limited companies jumped from 4 percent on the eve of the war to 8 percent in 1917. Th e profi ts of iron and steel industries jumped from 6 percent to 17 percent, automobiles from 8 percent to 31 percent, and wool from 5 percent to 19 percent (Porisini 1975, 34). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the modern claim that war and crisis enrich capital while labor pays the price — connects to the book’s overarching austerity-as-class-weapon thesis and Mattei’s argument that wars were a defining prelude to austerity. — connects to: Italian industry profited enormously from the First World War; Italy’s war economy grew through massive state subsidies and directed industrial intervention. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1653; British wartime state intervention raised real wages while Italian workers’ real wages fell. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1653 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Italian industry profited enormously from the First World War #corroborates (0.95)
• The war economy handed Big Business guaranteed profits and immunity from competition #expands (0.82) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 141
• Italy’s war economy grew through massive state subsidies and directed industrial intervention. #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653
• British wartime state intervention raised real wages while Italian workers’ real wages fell. #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653