XIV - History of the Bank of Italy Volume I. Formation and evolution of a central bank, 1893-1943by Gianni Toniolo

More so than in other countries, Italy's central bank has played an important role in creating conditions for the growth of the real economy. This first volume on the history of the Bank of Italy explores its origins, starting from its foundation in 1893 and retracing the subsequent fifty years, until 8 September 1943. The gradual transformation of a nineteenth-century bank of issue into a modern central bank emerges from an examination of its monetary policies and management of banking crises, from supervisory activity, relations with governments and foreign central banks, but also from lesser-known aspects of the Bank's life: changes in its institutional and organizational structure, its role in the war economy, colonial branches, and its relations with the National Fascist Party. The human factor also receives attention: governors, directors-general and officials, treasury ministers, and central bankers from other countries. The picture that emerges is one of accelerations and setbacks, of exemplary and less becoming conduct, of protagonism and marginalization, all leading to the formation of an institution equipped to meet the challenges of the post-World War II period.