World War I enormously strengthened and concentrated Italian industrial capital

Evidence

Italian capitalism had been given an enormous shot in the arm by the war, and the process of concentration of capital was proceeding at a vertiginous pace. Between 1915 and 1917, the average rate of profit in industry went up from 4.26 % to 7.75%; in advanced sectors the progress was dramatic—e.g. steel 6.3 %-16.55%, vehicle manufacture 8.2%-30.5%. Production of iron and steel multiplied five times in the course of the war, and firms like FIAT increased their capital tenfold. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 86

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s scaffolding on how economic conditions underpin fascism’s rise — the quantitative wartime profits data ground later claims about fascism as a class project rather than a desperation reflex. — connects to: World War I transformed the Italian state into the central planner of the economy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 131; The Great War triggered extensive nationalization in Britain and Italy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 188