II - The Governor Vincenzo Azzolini 1931-1944by Alessandro Roselli

The professional and human story of Vincenzo Azzolini, Governor of the Bank of Italy from 1931 to 1944, take place in an era of profound transformations of the economic and financial structures of our country. He was appointed to the top management of the Bank in the year of the catastrophe of the international monetary system and while the effects of the Great Depression of the early 1930s were unfolding in Italy as well. The expensive interventions in the banking crisis saw Azzolini as a mediator between the private-liberal model of the issuing bank and the new public purposes that were clearly emerging. The process developed by these events, which led to the banking reform of 1936, shaped the Central Bank as we know it today, giving it greater powers and definitively incorporating it into the public sphere. The story of the Bank's gold reserve removed by the Nazis during the WWII brought the traits of personal tragedy into the life of the Governor, who had to undergo a long judicial case ended with his full acquittal.