Description:

Mussolini Benito

Benito Mussolini Signed Telegram Re: State Bailout of Failing Banks: "demonstrated awareness urgent necessity restructuring aforesaid bank stop"

 

1p typed telegram transcript in Italian signed by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) as "Mussolini" at lower right, and initialed by him as "M" at upper left. Also including a few words in Mussolini's hand: at upper left, "Highly confidential / For your cipher"; and in the body of the telegram, the word "various." Mussolini also crossed out five words towards the bottom. Mussolini's signature is slightly feathered, but the handwriting is characteristically bold, dark, and decisive. The watermarked cream paper was docketed, stamped, and annotated in pen and red pencil. Expected light paper folds and a clerical square hole punch at top left. Chipped edges, else near fine. Measures 8.5" x 11". A full translation is provided.

 

Mussolini dispatched this telegram, originally coded in cypher, to the Prefect of Milan on February 22, 1928. In it, Il Duce summarized what had taken place at a meeting in Milan the preceding day between his Finance Minister Giuseppe Volpi (1877-1947) and representatives of Italy's largest banks. There is no punctuation in the telegram except for the occasional use of "stop." The staccato communication style makes for invigorating reading!

 

In part:

 

"Fiduciary Finance Minister following conversations yesterday Milan has reported that managers Credito Italiano Banca Nazionale Credito and group already participating Banco Roma whose spokesperson is Honorable Benni have demonstrated awareness urgent necessity restructuring aforesaid bank stop This should happen without any direct State disbursement and with old shareholders' loss which alone can justify Instituto Liquidazioni to which old loss items would be transferred with renunciation some conventional rights within known limits stop Because negotiations do not permit further delays and prevarications fiduciary will be Milan again tomorrow to conclude along lines generally proposed stop If accord is not reached Government in conformity public statements will abandon all initiatives and cut short all interventions various firms except assessing potential liability stop You may permit interested parties read this telegram."

 

This fascinating telegram reveals Mussolini's attitude towards the Italian banking crisis of the 1920s. In a course of events remarkably similar to that which took place in the United States in the late 2000s, Italian banks had engaged in various irresponsible banking practices. This malfeasance, combined with the sluggish state of the Italian economy in the immediate aftermath of World War I, had necessitated State intervention to stabilize financial institutions that were deemed "too big to fail."

 

As economist Constanza A. Russo explains in her article "Bank Nationalization of the 1930s in Italy: The IRI Formula" (Theoretical Inquiries of Law, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2012), Italy had been interceding on behalf of its largest banks since the early 1920s. Initially, the State had only taken small steps to regulate its private sector, when it acted as a mediator between banks and the companies who wanted to take them over. In 1922, however, more drastic action was necessary when both the Banca Italiana di Sconto and the Banca di Roma weakened to the point of collapse. The State bailed them out using an emergency fund called the SSC, which became rebranded in 1926 as the Instituto Liquidazioni (referred to on Line 8 of the telegram.) Between 1921-1926, the State pumped 44 billion liras into failing Italian banks and companies to prop them up.

 

This gradual transition towards greater and greater State economic intervention, then, set the stage for the establishment of the IRI, or Institute for Industrial Reconstruction, in 1933. At this point, Italy became the de facto owner of the majority of its nation's banks, industries, and companies. By 1939, approximately 75% of the Italian economy had been nationalized.

 

Thus if we return to the telegram, we understand that Volpi had met with bankers to discuss "demonstrated awareness urgent necessity restructuring aforesaid bank stop." Mussolini was confident that the restructuring would take place without "direct State disbursement," unleashing a domino effect of shareholders' losses which would in turn trigger Instituto Liquidazioni emergency spending. If the bankers did not agree to the State's terms, then negotiation would cease.

 

The national banks mentioned in the telegram were some of Italy's largest. Credito Italiano was originally founded in Genoa in 1870; the Banco di Roma was established in Rome in 1880. "Honorable Benni" referred to Antonio Stefano Benni (1880-1945), the President of the Banco di Roma between 1928-1935.

 

Benito Mussolini, a former war veteran and right-wing journalist, had become leader of Italy's National Fascist Party after World War I. He was appointed Prime Minister in 1922, a title that he would hold until his dismissal in 1943, but in reality, he served as a de facto dictator after 1925. Under Mussolini, Italy and its one-party political system devoted itself to recapturing the lost glories of the Roman Empire. Secret police, propaganda, and strict state regulation of all aspects of life ensured almost universal compliance.

 

Giuseppe Volpi served as Mussolini's Finance Minister between 1925-1928. (Volpi would be replaced by Antonio Moscini just five months after meeting bankers in Milan.) While finance minister, Volpi linked the Italian lira to the gold standard and negotiated Italian debt repayment to its former military allies the United States and Great Britain.

 


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