No. 3 - The Bank of Italy and the measures to assist the silk industry between 1918 and 1922.An account based on source material from the Bank of Italy’s archives

This essay provides a reconstruction of an episode in the life of the Bank of Italy when Bonaldo Stringher was Director General - the support provided in 1918 to the silk-spinning industry on behalf of the State by means of the Central Office for the Silk Market, a governmental body set up at the Bank. The essay first examines the causes of the sector’s crisis in the middle of 1918 and the calls made by industrialists for intervention by the State. It then analyzes the steps taken to sustain silk spinners and exporters and describes the activity of the Central Office in buying up manufacturers’ excess stocks and subsequently selling them in international markets. There are two appendices: a note on the archival sources consulted and a chronological list of the documents cited with their call numbers.