ABSTRACT
The economic development of Italy between 1815 and 1860 was a central issue in the liberal critique of Restoration government. Italy’s Restoration rulers were restored in 1815 during a period of acute economic crisis. One effect of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars had been to damage severely Italian trade, along with the economies of the major ports, particularly Venice. A European economic depression undermined agricultural production; many parts of Italy suffered a famine that lasted until 1817-18. The economic reforms of the French period, most notably with regard to infrastructure, lost momentum with the changes of government. A sense of economic decline, and of growing economic weakness relative to their Northern European competitors, dogged Italy’s governments up until unification.
