the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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178<br />
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING<br />
<strong>the</strong> way for <strong>the</strong> application to <strong>the</strong> Italian case also <strong>of</strong> Goldsmith’s conceptual<br />
instruments <strong>of</strong> a statistical-accounting nature. This made it possible, in <strong>the</strong> first<br />
place, to show how in Italy, in <strong>the</strong> period following <strong>the</strong> emergence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mixed<br />
banks, <strong>the</strong> financiatial intermediation ratio indicator (FIN) was higher than that<br />
<strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r industrialised countries and that <strong>the</strong>re was an elevated and precocious<br />
institutionalisation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> credit system, and that consequently <strong>the</strong> Italian case<br />
came within <strong>the</strong> financing schema. In <strong>the</strong> second place, it showed that <strong>the</strong> increase<br />
in <strong>the</strong> financial inter-relation ratio (FIR) was very high in <strong>the</strong> interwar period<br />
(1914–1938), but very low in <strong>the</strong> period <strong>of</strong> industrialisation (1881–1914). Thus,<br />
at a merely quantitative level, exploding ‘<strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory that in <strong>the</strong> initial launch <strong>of</strong><br />
Italian industry, given <strong>the</strong> “forced” nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> process, <strong>the</strong> overall role <strong>of</strong> finance<br />
[…] was more important than in o<strong>the</strong>r periods’. Such considerations, never<strong>the</strong>less,<br />
ended up by streng<strong>the</strong>ning ra<strong>the</strong>r than undermining Gerschenkron’s <strong>the</strong>ory,<br />
confirming that <strong>the</strong> credits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial intermediaries, and in particular those<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mixed banks ‘replaced o<strong>the</strong>rs ra<strong>the</strong>r than augmenting <strong>the</strong>m’ and that, in view<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> considerable contribution made by such credit institutes to <strong>the</strong> increase <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> FIN <strong>the</strong>y must have had ‘a specific ‘qualitative’ tendency […] to foster <strong>the</strong><br />
industrial and economic development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> country’ between 1895 and 1913. <br />
None<strong>the</strong>less, all <strong>the</strong>se studies very carefully avoided considering <strong>the</strong> role<br />
played by <strong>private</strong> bankers both before <strong>the</strong> reorganisation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> credit system and<br />
after <strong>the</strong> birth and consolidation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> mixed bank. References to <strong>the</strong> importance<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se economic entities had not been lacking in <strong>the</strong> past. As observed by Franco<br />
Bonelli, in <strong>the</strong> 1920s Luigi Einaudi had already drawn attention to <strong>the</strong> role played<br />
by <strong>the</strong> minor banks and by <strong>private</strong> bankers in enabling <strong>the</strong> major credit institutions<br />
that emerged at <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> last century (Banca Commerciale Italiana, Credito<br />
Italiano) to expand <strong>the</strong>ir sphere <strong>of</strong> action to a clientele traditionally bound to <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>private</strong> banks by relations <strong>of</strong> trust, and at times even family connections. About<br />
thirty years ago, <strong>the</strong> same concept was confirmed by <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>n governor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
Banca d’Italia, Guido Carli. The difficulty – up until very recently – <strong>of</strong> accessing<br />
direct archive sources was for a long time a serious impediment to <strong>the</strong> progress<br />
<strong>of</strong> such studies. Recently, however, several important steps forward have been<br />
made, primarily thanks to a younger generation <strong>of</strong> scholars who have adopted an<br />
<br />
R.W. Goldsmith, Financial Structure and Development (New Haven, 1969).<br />
<br />
A.M. Biscaini Cotula and P.L. Ciocca, ‘Le struttura finanziarie: aspetti quantitativi di<br />
lungo periodo (1870–1979)’, in F. Vicarelli (ed.), Capitale industriale e capitale finanziario:<br />
il caso italiano (Bologna, 1979), pp. 65–75 (quotations are on pp. 67, 70 and 75).<br />
<br />
F. Bonelli, La crisi del 1907: Una tappa dello sviluppo industriale in Italia (Turin,<br />
1971), p. 14.<br />
<br />
L. Einaudi, ‘Prefazione’ to M. Segre, Le banche nell’ultimo decennio con particolare<br />
riguardo al loro sviluppo patologico nel dopoguerra (Milan, 1926), p. III.<br />
<br />
See his preface to R. De Mattia (ed.), Banca d’Italia, I bilanci degli Istituti di<br />
emissione italiana dal 1883 al 1936, altre serie storiche di interesse monetario e fonti<br />
(Rome, 1967), vol. I, p. XVI.