‘Facts in search of a theory’. Gianni Toniolo’s economic history (1942–2022)

ABSTRACT

On Sunday, November 13, 2022, the cultural section of the ‘Il Corriere della Sera’ devoted its main article to the first volume of Gianni Toniolo’s latest opus, Storia della Banca d’Italia. Formazione ed evoluzione di una banca centrale, 1893–1943. The article characterized the book as an ‘extraordinary economic autobiography of the country’, and Toniolo as ‘undoubtedly the greatest of Italian economic historians’. That very day Gianni Toniolo died in Rome at the age of eighty. To review Toniolo’s work and life, even in the limited space these pages allow, is to go back over a period of Italian and international economic historiography, from the 1970s to the present day, to which Toniolo made vital and original contributions in a number of different ways.

RIASSUNTO

Domenica 13 novembre 2022 “Il Corriere della Sera” dedicava l’articolo principale della pagina della cultura al primo tomo della Storia della Banca d’Italia. Formazione ed evoluzione di una banca centrale, 1893–1943 di Gianni Toniolo. Nell’articolo il volume era definito una “straordinaria autobiografia economica del Paese” e Toniolo “senza dubbio il maggiore storico italiano dell’economia”. Quel giorno stesso Gianni Toniolo moriva a Roma all’età di 80 anni. Ripercorrere la sua opera e la sua vita significa, sia pure nello spazio breve di qualche pagina, ripercorrere una stagione della storiografia economica, italiana e non solo, dagli anni Settanta a oggi, alla quale egli ha dato contributi fondamentali e originali in diverse direzioni.

KEYWORDS:

•  Gianni Toniolo
• economic history
• development
• institutions
• Italy

PAROLE CHIAVE:

•  Gianni Toniolo
• storia economica
• sviluppo
• istituzioni
• Italia

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to professors Sabino Cassese, Pierluigi Ciocca and Barry Eichengreen for their helpful comments and generous feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. F. Fubini, “L’olio di ricino alla lira,” Corriere della Sera, November 13, 2022, p. 34.

^2. G. Toniolo, Storia della Banca d’Italia. Tomo I. Formazione ed evoluzione di una banca centrale, 1893–1943, il Mulino, Bologna, 2022, p. 1.

^3. G. Toniolo, Storia economica dell’Italia liberale 1850–1918, il Mulino, Bologna, 1988, p. 8.

^4. G. Toniolo, Storia della Banca d’Italia, cit., p. 5.

^5. G. Toniolo, “Effective Protection and Industrial Growth: The Case of Italian Engineering, 1898-1913,” The Journal of European Economic History, 8, 3, 1977, pp. 659–673.

^6. G. Toniolo, P. Ciocca, Industry and Finance in Italy, 1918–1940, “The Journal of European Economic History,” special issue “Banks and Industry in the Interwar Period,” 13, 4, 1984, pp. 113–136. Charles P. Kindleberger and Hyman P. Minsky also wrote for that issue. Toniolo organized a conference on this topic at MIT in 1982.

^7. As early as 1969, with R.E. Sylla, Toniolo wrote an article, “‘New Economic History’: methods, objectives, limitations” in Quaderni storici delle Marche, 11, 1969, pp. 229–264. He returned to the topic in 1976, editing a special issue of another journal: G. Toniolo (ed.), La “New Economic History,” Quaderni storici, 31, 1976, pp. 380–461.

^8. G. Toniolo, P. Ciocca, “Industry and Finance in Italy, 1918–1940,” cit., p. 136.

^9. G. Toniolo, Preface to J.D. Gould, Storia e sviluppo economico, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1975, p. XVI.

^10. P. Ciocca, Gianni Toniolo and the Rivista di Storia Economica, “Rivista di Storia Economica. Italian Review of Economic History,” 3, 2022, p. 1.

^11. G. Toniolo, C. Bastasin, La strada smarrita. Breve storia dell’economia italiana, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2020, p. 151.

^12. S. Cassese, “Gianni Toniolo, il biografo dell’economia,” Corriere della Sera, November 14, 2022, p. 33.

^13. C.H. Feinstein, P. Temin, G. Toniolo, The European Economy between the Wars, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997, p. 5

^14. G. Toniolo, Storia della Banca d’Italia, cit., p. 4. An early commentary on the book from P.F. Asso, Nascita e formazione di una banca centrale. Sulla “Storia della Banca d’Italia” di Gianni Toniolo, Bancaria, 100, 12, pp. 16–19, based on the speech given at the book launch at the Bank of Italy in Rome on October 18, 2022.

^15. G. Toniolo, “Se l’economia sfugge alla letteratura,” II Sole 24 Ore, August 7, 2016. Review of the book by P. Ciocca, Ai confini dell’economia. Elogio dell’interdisciplinarità, published by Aragno in 2016.

^16. G. Toniolo, Storia della Banca d’Italia, cit., p. 4.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giovanni Farese

Giovanni Farese is Associate Professor of Economic History and Dean of the Graduate School of Economics at the European University of Rome. He is Managing Editor of The Journal of European Economic History.