monika poettinger

ABSTRACT As of a consequence of the ongoing economic crisis, in 2010 there was a marked deterioration in cross-border relations between Italy and Germany. In both countries the press published articles openly blaming economic hardship on the squandering attitude of southerners or the egoistic and mercantilist policies of northerners. The reigning confusion among economists, split between pro-and anti-Euro positions in both countries, could do nothing to counter this growing wave of populist nationalism. Out of this situation grew the idea of a organizing a conference to discuss the theoretical issues implied by recent economic policy debates, purging them of ideological and nationalistic overtones. This volume publishes the proceedings of the resulting international colloquium, «Economic crisis and new nationalisms: German economic policy as perceived by European partners», which was organized by the Foundation Cesifin Alberto Predieri and held in Florence in November 2012

The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germanyirreversibly altered Europe's political equilibrium and with it theideological predominance of French culture on the Continent. This wasparticularly true for the young economic science. The predominance ofAnglo-French economic liberalism had had its culmination in 1860 withthe Cobden Chevalier Treaty, sanctioning not only the commitment ofGreat Britain and France to free trade but also the proximity of their traditions in economic thought. The emergence, though, in the subsequent decade of new national bodies in Italy and Germany brought to the forefrontthe necessity to justify institutional changes and profound reforms inlaw and polities, a feat done summoning the historical evolution of societies more than endorsing individual freedom. Eisenach was the German answer, Milan the Italian one. Both congresses, held in 1872 and 1875 respectively, harshly condemned the inhuman working conditions, for women and children, entailed in the industrialization process and consequently invoked the intervention of the State in the name of moral principles. Contingency was so the excuse of pervading policies that could be adapted to different situations in space and time. Liberalists could not accept such turn in economic science. Across borders, alarmed reviews of the two Congresses were printed, translated and commented, journals were even founded with the intent to refute or diffuse the new theories. The ensuing "Methodenstreit" became a powerful means to diffuse economic thinking in the whole of Europe, stimulating international reviewing of economic books and articles and the translation of economic texts.

The paper is based on extensive research done in Milan's Chamber of Commerce. The resulting database of 176 founding acts of businesses registered in the 1850s allows an unique insight in the functioning mechanisms of Lombardy's economy: how liquidity was collected and distributed, how partnerships were formed, inside which social circles were partners found, how much kinship ties determined business decisions, what criteria proved relevant in the investment decision making processes, how were innovation and entrepreneurship rewarded. Based on the richness of the data collected several conclusions were drawn on business forms, partners characteristics and innovation. The picture emerging from the sample vindicates the capacity of Milan's merchant elite to foster innovation through the efficient allocation of capital and the creation of entrepreneurial capital, averting at the same time disastrous financial crises: the solid base of the successive development of the region.

ABSTRACT The 1980s witnessed a renewed interest in the Wiener Kreis and logical empiricism . New historiographical accounts were dedicated to its principal components and their works have been widely republished. Among them also one of the most controversial adherents to the first Vienna circle: Otto Neurath (1882-1945) . Once stigmatized as a volcanic revolutionary, poor in theory as rich in reforming enthusiasm, Neurath has been rediscovered as an astonishingly modern theorist of the philosophy of science, capable of anticipating the much later positions of Kuhn and Feyerabend. Neurath’s role as an economist, though, has been much more neglected, even if recently his economic writings have been republished and partially translated in English . A quite astonishing occurrence, given that Neurath begun his scientific and academic career as an economist with an outstanding curriculum and participated in all debates of his time, discussing in depth central themes from the theory of value, to the method of social sciences, from the normative content of economics to the possibility of socialist calculation, to quote just the most renown. Due to the vehemence of these debates, contemporaries judged Neurath’s accomplishments rather with contempt than appreciation. Nonetheless the silence of historiography for most of the remaining twentieth century is not easily understandable, particularly in the field of economic thought. The main difficulty in evaluating Neurath’s economic theory lies in his radical redefinition of the economic science as such, based on his empiricist, or better even ‘physicalist’, approach. The first section of this paper will so be dedicated to briefly introduce Neurath’s idea of science and of the role scientists should have in society. How his epistemology resulted from of his experience in reforming economic science in the first decades of the twentieth century will also be briefly illustrated. The second section of the paper will then relate how Neurath, in the course of the years comprised between the publication of his doctoral dissertation in 1906 and his essay on Das Begriffsgebäude der Wirtschaftslehre und seine Grundlagen in 1917, completely revolutionized the idea of economics, refuting both the approach of the historical school represented by Gustav Schmoller, one of his supervisors in Berlin, and the sistematic of the school of Vienna he already attacked participating to the seminar held by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk in 1906. Neurath so redefined economics in an holistic effort to reduce to unity all the opposing positions inflaming the economic debates of those troubled years, giving life to a science that could equally make space for abstracting models and empirical verification; a science that applied the same methodology to the study of a market economy and of socialization processes; a science that could comprise List’s cosmopolitan economy as a contemporary war economy. Although being quite revolutionary in its outcome, Neurath’s definition of economics rested heavily on the past of the discipline. In his view, no science could and should be rebuild completely, starting with a tabula rasa. From Aristotle to Smith, from Quesnay to Sismondi, all economists had still something useful to contribute to the advancement of science. What once had been cast away could find new validity in some novel form or in a restricted field. History was so an indispensable part of the economist’s toolkit. As described in the paper, many features of Neurath’s economics reveal today a striking modernity, justifying the necessity of a new and more complete evaluation of his role in the history of economic thought.

This essay analyses several writings of Carlo Lorenzini, published on jour-nals, newspapers and collections, reconstructing the enlightened pedagogical principles applied in composing his masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinoc-chio, and also his assumptions in regard the path of history and the role of education in the bettering of society. The process of humanization of Pinoc-chio will also be represented as the experience of all children, aged eight to twelve, on the verge of adulthood in the land of freedom of choice and moral-ity building. Lastly, the work of Lorenzini will be contextualised in the his-tory of Tuscany in the decades of Italy’s unification, showing the disap-pointment of Lorenzini with the results of the institutionalisation process of the new state, harming the freedom of its citizen, not least by imposing bourgeois values through compulsory education.

The paper is based on extensive research done in Milan's Chamber of Commerce. The resulting database of 176 founding acts of businesses registered in the 1850s allows an unique insight in the functioning mechanisms of Lombardy's economy: how liquidity was collected and distributed, how partnerships were formed, inside which social circles were partners found, how much kinship ties determined business decisions, what criteria proved relevant in the investment decision making processes, how were innovation and entrepreneurship rewarded. Based on the richness of the data collected several conclusions were drawn on business forms, partners characteristics and innovation. The picture emerging from the sample vindicates the capacity of Milan's merchant elite to foster innovation through the efficient allocation of capital and the creation of entrepreneurial capital, averting at the same time disastrous financial crises: the solid base of the successive development of the region.

The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germany irreversibly altered Europe’s political equilibrium and with it the ideological predominance of French culture on the Continent. This was particularly true for the young economic science, the most brilliant outcome of enlightenment. It had been political economy, with its natural laws, to justify the revolutionary claim to individual freedom, foundation of wealth and welfare. The predominance of this economic liberalism had had its culmination in 1860 with the Cobden Chevalier Treaty, sanctioning not only the commitment of Great Britain and France to free trade but also the proximity of their traditions in economic thought. The emergence, though, in the subsequent decade of new national bodies in Italy and Germany brought to the forefront the necessity to justify institutional changes and profound reforms in law and polities, a feat done summoning the historical evolution of societies more than endorsing individua...

Federico Caffè dedicò la sua vita di studioso alla diffusione, in accademia, tra i decisori economici del big business, big labour e big government , fino ai lettori di quotidiani e riviste indipendenti, di quei modelli possibili che emergevano da una lettura matura e variegata del passato storico italiano, dallo studio attento e non viziato di pregiudizio delle teorie di politica economica più recenti, fossero di eredità keynesiana o dedicate al welfare economics, ed infine dalla riscoperta di idealità passate e sconfitte, come la centralità del lavoro nella vita sociale. Di seguito si analizzerà proprio questo sforzo diffusivo dell’economista abruzzese, troppo facilmente e semplicemente riconducibile a quella “tradizione italiana dei grandi Maestri del passato che, a cominciare da Francesco Ferrara, non hanno mai circoscritto il loro impegno alla ricerca teorica e all’insegnamento, ma hanno svolto un’attiva opera divulgativa e polemica nella pubblicistica e si sono posti a disposi...

ABSTRACT As of a consequence of the ongoing economic crisis, in 2010 there was a marked deterioration in cross-border relations between Italy and Germany. In both countries the press published articles openly blaming economic hardship on the squandering attitude of southerners or the egoistic and mercantilist policies of northerners. The reigning confusion among economists, split between pro-and anti-Euro positions in both countries, could do nothing to counter this growing wave of populist nationalism. Out of this situation grew the idea of a organizing a conference to discuss the theoretical issues implied by recent economic policy debates, purging them of ideological and nationalistic overtones. This volume publishes the proceedings of the resulting international colloquium, «Economic crisis and new nationalisms: German economic policy as perceived by European partners», which was organized by the Foundation Cesifin Alberto Predieri and held in Florence in November 2012

Business Cycles in Economic Thought underlines how, over the time span of two centuries, economic thought interacted with cycles in a continuous renewal of theories and rethinking of policies, whilst economic actions embedded themselves into past economic thought. This book argues that studying crises and periods of growth in different European countries will help to understand how different national, political and cultural traditions influenced the complex interaction of economic cycles and economic theorizing. The editors of this great volume bring together expert contributors consisting of economists, historians of economic thought and historians of economics, to analyse crises and theories of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. This is alongside a comprehensive outlook on the most relevant advances of economic theory in France, Germany and Italy, as well as coverage of non-European countries, such as the United States. Several of the highly prestigious Villa Vigoni Trilateral Conferences formed the background for the discussions in this book. This volume is of great interest to students and academics who study history of economic thought, political economy and macroeconomics.

ABSTRACT As Napoleon swept up the Continent, European societies faced alter-native paths of modernization depending on thé elite capable of directing the change. In Lombardy, a region deprived of an own nation state and of independence, the only viable way to modernization was that of eco-nomic changes guided by the mercantilé elite. Not a nobility based on political participation, patriotism and civil rights but a nobility of work could substitute in Lombardy ancien régime values. Attracted, as Napoleon soldiers, by the richness and the entrepreneurial opportunities of northern Italy, many merchants crossed the Alps to set-tle down in Lombardy. They didn't bring warfare or pillages along them. Through their international networks they channelled into Lombardy capi-tal, skilled workers and entrepreneurial capabilities. But their influence on the Italian region was not limited to manufacturing, organizational or fi-nancial innovation. Through their economic and social ascent an example was set as to how, through hard work, economic if not political indepen-dence could be achieved. Even governments respected this wealth elite, being dependent on their availability to finance their growing public debt, on their intermediation to supply the necessary wares in a specializing and globalised Europe, and on their capability to employ the population in new manufactures. The reforms to make thi elite politically repre-sented were not unique to the French government. The Austrian rule that preceded and followed Napoleon in Lombardy went the same path. Such political recognition reinforced the influence of the cosmopolitan merchan elite on Lombardy's intellectuals and nobility. Around it rapidly coalesced a social grouping prone to innovation, liberalism, religious tolerance and favourable to federative aggregations. Beginning with the Napoleonic age such aggregation was capable of directing Lombardy's modernization well before Italy's political independence.

Il volume, in lingua tedesca, è suddiviso in quattro parti e copre circa cento anni di storia, dal XVIII al XIX secolo, durante i quali Milano è stata oggetto di migrazioni imprenditoriali e flussi commerciali che la legavano all’Europa grazie alla ricca produzione agricola. Da differenti stati tedeschi si giungeva a Milano per partecipare al commercio della seta, lavorare il cotone, importare le conoscenze del manufatto dall’Inghilterra, produrre e commercializzare prodotti in pelle. Si sono quindi venute a creare quelle reti commerciali che avrebbero dominato l’élite lombarda ed europea fino alla fine dell’Ottocento. La migrazione di operatori e tecnici tedeschi è cresciuta dalla metà del XIX secolo in poi. A poco a poco l’intera struttura economica della Lombardia è stata trasformata e si è visto un cambiamento anche nella migrazione per esigenze lavorative: i concessionari sono stati sostituiti dai rappresentanti e i tecnici dagli ingegneri. È emersa quindi una rete di aziende altamente specializzate nella produzione di gomma, plastica e beni di consumo. Grazie agli imprenditori tedeschi si è sviluppata la cultura per il lavoro e la fede nel progresso tecnologico, basi per lo sviluppo economico.

"Il volume analizza la figura del mercante partendo dalle civiltà mesopotamiche fino ad arrivare a metà Ottocento. Considerato un eroe capace di straordinarie imprese commerciali per il bene della collettività, nel Rinascimento si “traveste” da Mago che dona ricchezze alle città per ottenere il riconoscimento della società e delle più alte cariche governanti. Un balzo di qualche secolo e si arriva in piena epoca industrializzata: si definisce un’idea di mercante gretto, meschino e senza scrupoli, capace di tutto pur di raggiungere il proprio tornaconto. Chiude il volume un capitolo dedicato alla Milano ottocentesca e alla sua fiorente economia mercantile. Una volta unificata l’Italia, l’unica regione veramente industrializzata era la Lombardia e soprattutto il suo capoluogo, Milano: proprio qui nascono le prime associazioni e la prima Camera di Commercio. Durante l’arco temporale preso in considerazione emerge chiaramente la dicotomia tra l’interesse privato, spesso mal celato, del mercante che viene stigmatizzato come esempio di bassa moralità per l’incessante attività alla ricerca del profitto personale, e la nobiltà d’animo unita al disinteresse verso il proprio guadagno a fronte di un benessere più generale, ritenuto necessario per governare. "

"A fascinating account of Florentine life in the nineteenth century, and a snapshot of the city when it was the capital of Italy, this series of essays shows the city in all its delightful complexity, poised between tradition and modernity, political conservatism and cultural innovation. For lovers of Florence seeking to know more about the history of the modern city, and the material realities behind its Renaissance facade, this book is a must-read."
"This book provides a comprehensive history of Florence between 1865 and 1871. An encompassing introduction by one of the editors and 15 contributions show the profound and long-lasting changes resulting from the establishment of Florence as temporary capital of Italy. Readers will learn a lot from this illuminating text and its rich illustrations." Alain Alcouffe, Emeritus Professor, University of Toulouse, France Available to pre-order now! 35% off with this flyer! Hardback | 376 pp | December 2017 | 9781350013988 | £90.00 £58.50 This edited collection provides the first comprehensive history of Florence as the mid-19th century capital of the fledgling Italian nation. Covering various aspects of politics, economics, culture and society, this book examines the impact that the short-lived experience of becoming the political and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Italy had on the Tuscan city, both immediately and in the years that followed. It reflects upon the urbanising changes that affected the appearance of the city and the introduction of various economic and cultural innovations. The volume also analyses the crisis caused by the eventual relocation of the capital to Rome and the subsequent bankruptcy of the communality which hampered Florence on the long road to modernity. Florence: Capital of the Kingdom of Italy, 1865-71 is a fascinating study for all students and scholars of modern Italian history.

Economic Thought and History looks at the relationship between facts and thought in historical economic research, viewing it in the context of periods of economic crisis and providing detailed analyses of methods used in determining the bond between economic history and economic theory. This interdisciplinary collection brings together international researchers in the history of economic thought and economic history in order to confront varying approaches to the study of economic facts and ideas, rethinking boundaries, methodologies and the object of their disciplines.

Emilia Toscanelli Peruzzi (1827-1900), from the high bourgeoisie of Pisa, married, in 1850, Ubaldino Peruzzi, scion of an ancient Florentine family, politically active in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as in the later unified Italy. Conscious of her role in strengthening her husband's position, she immediately opened the salon of the Florentine mansion to politicians, literates, bankers and whomever she deemed might contribute to a lively discourse. Her correspondence followed up the discussions held in the salon and with its consistency of ten thousands of letters constitutes today a precious archival source for the understanding the critical role of salons in the Italian political and cultural scene of the second half of the nineteenth century. At that time the professionalisation of economists was still in its infancy and the salon Peruzzi was crucial in the formation of several young economists-lato sensu-who would later hold important positions in academia, in the administration of the Italian state and in major companies. While the case of Vilfredo Pareto has been researched, a general evaluation of the influence of Emilia Peruzzi on Italian political economy is still lacking.

Fritz L. Redlich (1892–1978), completed his degree in economics in Berlin in 1914 when the historical school still dominated the field in the person of Gustav Schmoller. His PhD research was already dedicated to a business history study: the German tar industry, while his attempt at obtaining a teaching qualification based on a research on the historical and economic significance of advertisement. Redlich himself withdrew his dissertation after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and three years later left Germany for the United States. He taught in several universities and also served in the public administration, all the while writing on the American Steel and banking industries, supported and sponsored by Frank Taussig. A major breakthrough in his career was the call to participate in the work of the Research Center in Entrepreneurial History at Harvard University. There, in continuous confrontation with Schumpeter, Cole and many other researchers in matters of entrepreneurship, Redlich developed an interesting epistemological foundation for the newly-born business history. He distinguished between research on the actor and on the action. Entrepreneurs could be studied as an ideal type, in theory, as a real type, in analytical empirical research, and as simple businessman in case-studies and biographical reconstructions. The action of entrepreneurs could be researched in regard to the goals and meaning of their enterprises, to the economy as a whole and to the community at large. Entrepreneurs could interact with all of the three aforementioned spheres of action, influencing not only the profitability of their ventures but also the development of an economy or the well-being of a community. As such, researching entrepreneurship only from the theoretical point of view would be limitative for Redlich. Business history should also attempt to 'verstehen', becoming part of the social sciences. The paper will analyse the methodological works of Fritz Redlich and his participation to the lively debate on the scientific statute of business history along with A. D. Chandler, but also his researches on aristocratic entrepreneurship, a topic on which he coordinated an international research effort, and his historiographic recounts on the emergence and diffusion of business history in Germany and in the United States.

The comparability of economies in time and space was taken for granted by many cataloguers and encyclopaedists in the centuries leading to enlightenment. The dawning thought of a development path of humanity put an end to such ingenuous comparisons. Along with the consciousness of the evolutionary nature of history, Europe developed the hubris of civilisation, condemning the rest of the world to an uncivilised backwardness. Comparisons became impossible, except for societies at the same stage of development. The study of economies suffered the same fate at the hand of all historicists who conceived complex models of growth in stages. Comparisons were allowed only by presuming the permanence of some characteristic of men or the existence of natural laws. While modern economics was funded on such assumptions, historicists became more and more sceptical about the possibility of comparisons over time: every event was unique. This profound difference in philosophical assumptions led to the famous debate between primitivists and modernists in respect to the study of ancient economies. Causality or contextualisation? That was the question. The paper will relate the nineteenth century discussion on the comparability of ancient and modern economies, extending the analysis to some heterodox economists of the twentieth century. Some
conclusions will be drawn on the possibility to construe in kind indexes of wealth, allowing fruitful comparisons of different institutional settings.

In the eclectic confusion spreading in German academia after the end of the hegemony of the historical school following WWI,  many authors and theories emerged that openly or overtly supported Hitler’s seizing of power and the Nazi regime. Organicist and sociological approaches lent a hand to the proclaimed supremacy of politics over economics and to an elitist view of state and economy. Aside from any moral judgement, these theories and theorists should be studied attentively to underline how many economic ideas that found a novel worldwide appreciation after the crisis of 2008 were instrumental in creating a wide popular support in favour of the Nazi regime during the 1920s.

The present study analyses the history of the Ginori porcelain manufacture as the result of the entrepreneurial effort of the marquis Carlo Ginori, heir of a noble Florentine family (Paragraph 1). The Ginori family, at the time of Carlo’s birth, had already passed through enrichment, ennoblement to bankruptcy, migration, trade, and back to nobility and aristocratic pursuits in just a couple of centuries. Something of the merchant his father had been persisted in Carlo Ginori, but his political career for the Lorena government of Tuscany moulded his thought toward mercantilist policies. All the while, he managed his family’s possessions with excelling administrative capabilities, an experience he capitalised in the porcelain manufactory.
The peculiarity of the aristocratic entrepreneurship embodied by Carlo Ginori marked the manufactory with some atypical traits that persisted for all the century and a half in which it remained in the hands of the heirs of the Ginori family (Paragraph 2). Accountancy, administration, succession and strategic decisions were heavily influenced by the aristocratic management of the firm. The early centralization of production in the premises located in villa Buondelmonti in Doccia, near Sesto Fiorentino, was just the most visible of these long-term characteristics.
Seen in this light, the history of Carlo Ginori and of his porcelain manufactory provides some precious understanding of the peculiar form and management of enterprises born out of nobility, highlighting a kind of entrepreneurship usually neglected by historiography.

Otto Neurath (1882-1945) wrote on rationality in the 1910s when he was interested in renewing the economic science on an empiricist fundament. He discussed rationality mainly in two contexts. Firstly, he analysed rationality as one of the means that humanity devised for taking decisions. In Die Verirrten des Cartesius und das Auxiliarmotiv. (Zur Psychologie des Entschlusses), a seminar held at the Viennese philosophical society in 1913 and later published, Neurath historicised the use and meaning of rationality, comparing it to religion and magic. In the wake of Ernst Mach, Neurath disputed the existence of universal truths or natural laws. Decisions would never cease to entail a measure of uncertainty and men would always err in the forest of Descartes, without any hope of ever exiting it. Rationality limited the pain of deciding exactly as other methods did and could not claim to be the way out of the forest. Rationality, though, even if its results did not stand the test of truth, constrained scientists to a continuous confrontation, avoiding arbitrary decision making on part of a minority. By applying scientific methods, a limited range of solutions could be offered, instead, to the democratic choice of the people. Scientists would not become the priests of future, imposing dictatorial whims on the majority. Contrary to Weber, Neurath so judged positively the rationalisation of the world because linked to democratisation. Secondly, Neurath discussed rationality as a fundament of economics, particularly criticizing the homo oeconomicus formulated by von Wieser. He did so in his Nationalökonomie und Wertlehre, eine systematische Untersuchung, published in 1911, and in Das Begriffsgebäude der Wirtschaftslehre und seine Grundlagen, published in 1917. Disputing the fact that rationality would steer humanity toward an ideal world ruled by natural laws, implied that man was not an irrational being in dire need of education and training: a pebble bringing the marvellous natural mechanism to a halt. With no available truth, it was impossible to measure the goodness or badness of a decision. Every decision would and should be legitimised by an auxiliary motive in respect to rationality. There was no reason to found the economic science on a man behaving rationally. Economic actions and economic policies should so be valued not in respect to their rationality but to their capability of enhancing the wealth and happiness of people. Neurath’s economics was to be a science of happiness not of rationality.

The early rise of fascism in Italy was accompanied by the spread of a new economic theory: corporatism, an attempt toward a third way in economics that sparked curiosity and obtained a certain measure of success in Europe and even further. Historiography, though, starting with some attentive foreign commentators, considers corporatism in fascist Italy an empty shell, devoid of any practical implementation. Nonetheless corporatism was enthusiastically embraced, in theory, by many economists, philosophers, jurists and even architects. Gaetano Ciocca (1882-1966), engineer and architect, heartily believed in corporatism as the synthesis emerging from the dialectical opposition of liberalism and communism. His judgement was not based on theoretical reasoning only, but on first-hand experience of the economic reality in the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1930, FIAT had appointed Ciocca to manage the construction of the first plant for the mass production of ball bearings in Moscow. In consequence, Ciocca lived two years in the Soviet Union experiencing all contradictions of the implementation of the first five-year plan. Communism, in his opinion, was just the ideological masque of a gigantic American style corporation. He summarised the experience in some newspaper articles and a volume published by the cosmopolitan editor Valentino Bompiani in the series “Panorama of our times”. The book, titled “Judgement on Bolshevism”, registered a stunning success and was favourably reviewed by Mussolini himself on the newspaper “Il Popolo d’Italia”. In 1934 Ciocca travelled to the United States to study the failings of the liberal market economy. He came back with a new volume for the Bompiani series, titled “Mass Economy”. The failings of liberalism, Ciocca argued, were similar to those of communism: the continuous state of war caused by economic competition had created wealth but not welfare.
The paper will analyse the representations of differing economic systems made by Ciocca on the base of his travels and the influence they had on the general opinion through the diffusion of his writings and the debates they sparked on newspapers and journals. Further attention will be dedicated to the documents, related to his voyages, preserved in personal archive of Gaetano Ciocca at the MART in Rovereto.

Questa ricerca analizza l’interscambio di cultura economica tra Italia e Germania dalla fine dell’Ottocento alla seconda guerra mondiale ricercandone i protagonisti, mediatori culturali ed istituzioni, e chiarendone alcune linee di sviluppo. La ‘leggenda’ secondo la quale il rivivere della scienza economica in Italia fosse dovuto alla decisa influenza della scuola storica tedesca, denunciata già da Pantaleoni sul finire del secolo, basava più sulla propaganda del Methodenstreit italiano che su reali basi scientifiche. Quanti si occuparono di comparare il pensiero economico italiano e tedesco del periodo, da Michels a Gumplowicz, avevano ben chiaro che il maggior peso nell’indirizzare la ricerca italiana di fine secolo lo avesse avuto la componente austriaca e, in essa, più del marginalismo, le teorie di finanza pubblica. Lo scoppio della prima guerra mondiale recise rapporti personali tra studiosi tedeschi ed italiani e fece diminuire drasticamente l’interscambio culturale nelle riviste scientifiche. Alla ripresa delle relazioni accademiche, dalla metà degli anni venti, le modalità ed i canali di diffusione delle teorie economiche erano profondamente mutati. Si presentarono sulla scena nuovi attori istituzionali, centri di ricerca e fondazioni culturali, e si moltiplicarono gli attori coinvolti. Il peso dell’interscambio culturale e scientifico si spostò con sempre maggior decisione verso l’Atlantico. Una impennata nei rapporti diretti tra Italia e Germania si verificò solo dopo la metà degli anni’30 per l’alleanza politica tra i due paesi. In questo processo, il ruolo dei mediatori culturali non perse importanza rispetto all’apporto fondamentale nel periodo dell’anteguerra. Traduzioni e recensioni continuarono ad essere fondamentali, fino al definitivo affermarsi dell’inglese come lingua franca della scienza. Tra quanti si dedicarono a questo compito anche molte donne che, fin dall’inizio del secolo si affacciarono prepotentemente sulla scena scientifica, senza poter raccogliere, però, i frutti del loro impegno. Fondamentale nell’incentivare l’internazionalizzazione del lavoro scientifico l’apporto finanziario delle fondazioni americane, il cui ruolo, tuttavia è ancora trascurato dalla storiografia.

A particular trait of the Italian debates on industrialism was the widespread belief that English crises were caused mainly by its century long unequal distribution of income. For the most part, Italian economists and intellectuals refuted the theses of Sismondi and Say, while adopting a free-trade stance combined with a measure of state control over industrialization processes. Civilization, in particular, came so to mean an economic modernization resulting from a slow spread of manufactories in the countryside, maintaining the old social order and an equal distribution of income.
The paper will analyze this response of Italian economists and intellectuals to England’s crises in the most diffused journals of the first half of the nineteenth century, from Il Conciliatore to the Antologia, from the Annali to the Biblioteca Italiana. A brief review of popular and illustrated magazines will underline how this stance would persist as an ideological prejudice on the inequality of the English society long into the second half of the nineteenth century.

Spesso, nei suoi scritti, Caffè ripercorreva il periodo fecondo di idealità che traghettò la Resistenza in volontà Costituente, ponendo le basi programmatiche ed istituzionali del nuovo stato italiano. Ne registrava, tuttavia, con profonda delusione, il velleitarismo di fondo, che aveva pregiudicato la concretizzazione delle spinte ideali. Certamente allora avevano operato interessi costituiti contrari al cambiamento, come forte era stata l'opposizione di idee sclerotizzatesi in ideologie. " Tuttavia-rifletteva Caffè nei primi anni '80-per chi abbia il convincimento profondo che, alla lunga, siano le idee a prevalere sugli interessi costituiti, nemmeno questa risulta una spiegazione appagante ". Non erano mancate le idee al dopoguerra italiano. Vi erano stati economisti che avevano individuato i nodi strutturali sui quali intervenire per fondare un duraturo sviluppo economico del paese. Ciò che era mancato era lo sforzo di realizzazione e concretizzazione che scongiurasse a tali idealità di rimanere lettera morta e persino svanire lentamente e inesorabilmente dalla storiografia, sempre più dominata da una lettura ideologicamente liberista.