ABSTRACT
In the 1850s and 1860s the railways, big business, and the banks operated in Germany as factors both of development and national economic unification so that, Germany had already taken the most crucial steps towards the creation of a single national market and was on the path towards modern economic growth. It has been noted that after the unification, Italy was the sixth great power of Europe, was recognized as such at the Congress of London in 1863. The differences in the economic policy pursued by the individual pre-unification states were reflected in the diversity of the tax systems and the size of outstanding per capita debt in 1859. Although the question of the state institutions which were taking shape during the years of the unification had far wider and more complex implications than those relative to modern economic growth, the dynamics of the latter was closely linked to that of the state's political and administrative organization.
