Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Harold James
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of History, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544, USA
Author-Email: hjames@princeton.edu
Author-Name: Kevin H. O’Rourke
Author-Workplace-Name: All Souls College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK
Author-Email: Kevin.ORourke@all-souls.ox.ac.uk
Title: Italy and the first age of Globalization, 1861-1940
Abstract: The paper presents trade policy as in line with that of other continental European powers, 
with a move to moderate levels of tariff protection for politically sensitive sectors such as steel 
and textiles and clothing, but also in agriculture, with levels of protection falling slightly before 
the First World War. Monetary policy was similarly driven by the constraints of capital scarcity, and 
by the political priority attached to reducing the cost of funding government debt. The most innovative 
area was probably in industrial policy, where after the 1880s and again in the 1930s in response to severe 
shocks, quite creative institutional policies were adopted. In particular financial restructuring was used 
as an opportunity to reshape the structure of industry.
Classification-JEL: N23. N24, N73, N74
Keywords: Comparative Economic History, Industrial Policy, Monetary Policy, Monetary Regime, Trade Policy.
Length: 39 pages
Creation-Date: 2012-02-20
Number: _094
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/5678/jamesorourke94.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_094