L'economia di guerra italiana

The essay presents an overview of the most important aspects of the Italian war economy. Its first purpose is to underline the analogies existing among countries in the solutions adopted to face the problems posed by the first total war in world history; then, it attempts a survey of the various stages in the development of historical research on the economic and social aspects of those years.
The sections which follow bring into focus three main areas of the war economy: first of all industry, with a focus on the industrial mobilization and the effects of war demand on the industrial structure of the country. Secondly agricultural production and food policy: the latter was an aspect of great importance, given the country’s dependence on foreign imports. The last section gives a brief account of the war finance, stressing that the war effort was supported primarily by borrowing and expanding the money supply, which made it much more difficult to return to normalcy in the postwar years.