ABSTRACT
Between 1901 and 1910 Italy made the greatest relative material progress of any major European country. 1 The trough of the depression had been reached in 1896. Recovery started in manufacturing industry and spread rapidly through the whole economy as soon as the crisis of 1898 was over. For the next ten years industry boomed. In 1907–8 came a financial crisis and a sharp recession. This time effective action was taken to prevent banking disasters and there were no scandals, riots or political upheavals. In 1909 the economy entered a new, though less sensational period of growth, characterised by a high degree of industrial cartellisation and a significant level of unemployment. The war with Turkey in 1911–12 brought new strains. Yet on the eve of the World War Italy had acquired a degree of stability and solidity which made an astonishing contrast with its weakness of twenty years before.
