The volume aims to outline, through the publication of the most significant documents, the main stages in the history of Italian Institutes of issue since the birth of the Bank of Genoa in 1844 until the eve of the establishment of the Bank of Italy.
In the Introduction Renato De Mattia focuses on the efforts of Cavour to strengthen the structure of the National Bank in the 1850s and the attempts to merge the issuing institutions after 1860. With the political unification of the Country the existing different banks of issue in the various pre-unification States suddenly found themselves acting in the same operative sphere, creating new problems. The volume documents chiefly the events of the 1860s, when, following the numerous projects of law introduced, the merge of the two major banks of issue constituted in the form of stock companies (Banca Nazionale and Banca Nazionale Toscana) was very close to completion.
The chronology of the period examined and the biographies of the relevant characters complete the volume.
