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No. 14 - The defeat of free banking in Italy: Majorana Calatabiano’s projects for banking reform (1877-1879)

The paper draws on official archives and parliamentary documents to shed light on the reformist efforts of the early governments of the historic Left to abolish the inconvertibilità of the currency and extend the number of issuing banks, which were among the most important points of the new coalition government’s economic programme. These efforts were orchestrated by Salvatore Majorana Calatabiano in the two periods (1877-1879) in which he was Minister for Agriculture, Industry and Trade. He was unsuccessful, partly owing to strong opposition from the issuing banks already operating in the country (and especially the largest one, the Banca Nazionale del Regno) and partly because of the resistance he encountered within the Left and from the Prime Minister himself, Agostino Depretis. It is significant that when Majorana’s projects collapsed all attempts to increase the number of issuing banks in the country were abandoned.