Italy’s war economy grew through massive state subsidies and directed industrial intervention.

Evidence

In 1914 it produced 4,800 automotive vehicles, and by 1918 its production rose to 70,862, of which 63,000 were for the Italian government. Th e aeronautic industry, practically nonexistent in 1913, employed by the end of the war around 100,000 workers. Th e chemical and textile industries also developed impressively, especially because of large state subsidies and direct intervention to support their technical apparatus, for example with the formation of the committee for chemical industries [Comitato per le industrie chimiche] (see De Stefani 1926a, 151- 53). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1653

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Industrial profits soared in Italy during the war while workers starved. — 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; Italian war spending expanded state economic control at an unprecedented scale — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 131 (+3 more)

Broader Connections