the world of private banking

PRIVAtE BANKERS AND ItALIAN INDUStRIALISAtION 203
Table 10.4 Private banking houses in the major Italian financial centres (1913–
1936)
1913 1917 1924 1936
Milan 27 26 35 6
Turin 25 32 22 7
Genoa 35 39 29 8
Venice 7 7 5 0
Florence 12 12 9 6
Rome 16 17 30 4
Naples 19 18 11 11
Total 141 153 141 42
Sources: Annuario generale d’Italia (Rome, 1913); Annuario delle banche italiane – Guida
statistico-monografico della Industria bancaria (Naples, 1917); U. Gozzini, Dizionario
delle banche, banchieri e casse di risparmio (Ancona, 1924); Banca d’Italia, Struttura
funzionale e territoriale del sistema bancario italiano 1936–1974 (Rome, 1977).
Obviously, the comparison between private bankers and the mixed banks
cannot be posed in merely quantitative terms (and this is moreover prevented by
the sources at least up to the mid-1920s, and even after they render it of little
interest). 71 Nevertheless, it appears clear that, at least in the period between the
mid-nineteenth century and the First World War, the role of the private bank
in the process of Italian industrial development cannot be ignored, and on the
contrary needs to be attentively appraised. In this way, very plausibly, not only
will the private banker be given the attention he deserves, highlighting all the
transformations which one of the most ancient economic and social figures went
through in this period, but it will also be possible to better appreciate the modes
and paths through which entities extraneous to the Italian banking culture, that is
the mixed banks, managed to consolidate their position in the country.
71
R. De Mattia (ed.), Banca d’Italia, I bilanci degli istituti di emissione italiani 1845–
1936 (Rome, 1967), vol. II, p. 913.