ABSTRACT
The making of United Italy had been a political achievement. The Risorgimento which preceded it had been a movement of minds in which all had shared, each according to the range of his experience. Until unification was complete it had been possible to keep an open mind about what the relationship exactly was between the Risorgimento and unification. By 1876 it was clear that it was not a simple one of fulfilment. That year was a turning-point in Italian history, because the generation associated with the Risorgimento and unification withdrew from the stage. The Papal non expedit (1874), a declaration that it was not expedient for Catholics to offer themselves as parliamentary candidates or even to vote in parliamentary elections, underlined, even though it was not fully observed, the withdrawal of the old political families. There was, moreover, distress and discontent, prompted by heavy taxation (the grist tax was called the tax on hunger) and the passivity of the Governments which followed Cavour's death. The King summoned Agostino Depretis to form a reforming Ministry from the Left. He was to reform administration, balance the budget, lower taxation, get rid of the grist tax and, above all, establish schools and lessen illiteracy. Depretis, who with Cairoli and Mancini dominated the decade 1876–87, did none of these things. His resources were too small. Nevertheless economically and socially his was a good period. The Governments of the Left had a favourable attitude to business interests and there was an industrial spurt into economic growth. But the good period was over by 1887. In that year the Government introduced a protective tariff. Special protection was given to iron and steel, though Italy was without the raw materials for heavy industry, so that this may not have been sound policy. A duty on imported wheat protected the interests of the landowners. An alliance developed between industrialists and landowners that was not altogether to Italy's advantage. There was anyhow a recession after 1887.
