Italy and the Globalisation of Trade Exchanges in the Late 19th Century

Foreign trade is a measure of the internationalization in Italy’s post-unification economy as well as a fascinating historical issue in itself. However, we have little knowledge about how long-distance exchanges were carried out, and who were the big and small foreign traders, ship owners, bankers and entrepreneurs at the center of those exchanges. Nor do we have any extensive knowledge about whether Italy was properly equipped to deal with the organizational, storing, and marketing innovations established at an international level to face the unprecedented stream of commodities, some of which were never exchanged over long distance before this time. Relying on so far ignored primary sources it is possible to document the laborious activity of small and big Italian traders in the international trade despite the delays by the Italian authorities in setting up the necessary infrastructures. Their competitive advantage - as well as their permanent weakness - seems to be the swarm of small actors that lacked an institutional framework, i.e. an effective collaboration of the recently unified State. Perhaps, a long-lasting aspect of the Italian history?

Keywords: Globalization, Trade, Italy, Markets, Entrepreneurs, Business history, Board of trade

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