Industrial Growth In Italy example essay topic

At the end of the nineteenth century a massive technological revolution changed the face of world industry. Steel, chemicals and electrical engineering became the new locomotives of the world economy. For countries like Britain, Holland and France which had already undergone initial process of industrialisation, this was the "second industrial revolution". For Italy, which remained an essentially rural economy, 1897-1913 was a period of industrial take-off: manufacturing out put doubled, more and more people found employment in industry and there was more investment in factories and equiptment than in any other sector of the economy. At the same time, intensive mechanisation of manufacturing processes was introduced and industry's consumption of power doubled in 15 years. The industrial growth in Italy was impressive after 1880.

In the 1880's, the State had promoted railways and given support for iron and steel and for shipping. The early 1890's were a bad time, at least for agriculture and banks, but after 1896 Italy "boomed", more impressively than any othr country in Europe in terms of growth rates. An example of this growth is Italy's forge in trade, which in the first half of the 1890's was at it's lowest point since 1870; but from 1896 to 1913, foreign trade went up from 2 billion, 600 million lire to 5 billion 900 million lire, a rise that was faster than Germany's. In the past, Italy had exported agricultural produce.

By 1913, manufacturing had a very substantial share in the country's exports. Textiles remained Italy's biggest industry and in 1913 this sector accounted for 60% of the total added value of Italy's manufacturing industries. Even so, in Italy as elsewhere in Europe, electricity and steel were becoming the new locomotive of economic growth in these years of industrial take-off and the engineering sector grew with the new car manufacturing industry. Italian industrialisation depended on a strong centralised State, levying high taxes and spending freely on communications and heavy industry; and it also depended on political power remaining in the hands of a class of "investors", such as big landowners. If Italy had not been united in 1870, or if it had been united as a small nation of small peasant-owners, industrial growth would not have occurred, or would have occurred more slowly.

The end of the long, worldwide depression in 1896 gave Italian industry the stimulus it needed to achieve the breakthrough into sustained growth. Between 1896 and 1913 Italy experienced the fastest rate of growth in per capita product of any major Eurpoean county. Industry grew at a rate of about 5 per cent a year, and agriculture at over 2 per cent. A new generation of entrepreneurs emerged who sized the opportunites presented by the technological innovations of the "second industrial revolution.".