ABSTRACT
The period that Italian historians often refer to as the 'Age of Giolitti' coincided with a spell of exceptional prosperity for the world economy. An acceleration of production, especially in manufacturing, was accompanied by a more than proportional expansion in international trade and in movements of capital and labour, in a context of a slight increase in prices and of stability in exchange rates. The growth in production of the main agricultural products during the 'Age of Giolitti', which is the base for the indices is the five-year period in the 1880s which preceded the introduction of the customs tariff and the trade war with France. One important aspect of economic policy in the 'Age of Giolitti' was the impulse given to the creation of social overhead capital, especially in railways. Investment in other public works sectors appears, ex post, as one of the important contributions of economic policy to growth during the Giolitti era.
