ABSTRACT
The economic evolution of Italy, in the earliest period of its history, is more complex than that of Western Europe and North Africa. No doubt, one finds the characteristic ages of prehistory in their accustomed order, Palælithic, Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Iron. But in the course of these great stages in progress, towards the rational use of natural resources, towards the methodical and fruitful organization of human labour, Italy underwent many migrations of various origins and was subjected to influences as varied as they were numerous. By its general shape, stretched out from north to south from the Alps to the Strait of Messina, by its position between the two great basins of the Mediterranean, by its three fronts on the Adriatic, the Ionian Sea, and the Tyrrhenian Sea, and by its very relief and its topography, which favours division rather than unity, Italy belongs both to Central Europe and to the Mediterranean world. It faces both east and west; the peoples which occupied it and the civilizations brought to it. from outside or developed on its own soil did not merge into a truly national unity until very late. There are, moreover, obscurities and gaps in the prehistory of Italy. To dispel the former and bridge over the latter hypotheses have been suggested and systems erected which do not always appear very solidly founded.
