Luigi Luzzatti

Luigi Luzzatti

Luigi Luzzatti (born March 11, 1841 in Venice , † March 29, 1927 in Rome ) was an Italian economist, financier and politician. He was the Italian Minister of Finance and Treasury on several occasions, President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) from March 31, 1910 to March 2, 1911 and also served as Minister of the Interior during this time.

Monument in honor of Luigi Luzzatti, Stadtpark, Oderzo

Life and academic career

Born into a wealthy Jewish factory owner family, Luzzatti studied political science and law in Padua from 1858 to 1863 . In October 1863, two months after graduating from university, he published La diffusione del credito e le banche popolari (Loans and Volksbanks) , in which, following Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, he referred to the social function of combating usury and providing cheap loans. At the turn of the year 1863/64 he moved to Milan to teach statistics and economics at the newly founded Higher Technical Institute (today: Politecnico di Milano ) . In contrast to Venice, which belonged to Austria until 1866 , from Milan he was also able to take part in the political, social and economic life of Italy without restriction. In the next few years he worked as a journalist and practically for the expansion of the cooperatives and Volksbanks in Italy: The oldest Volksbank in the country, Banca Popolare di Lodi , was founded by himself in 1864.

In October 1867 he was appointed professor of constitutional law at the University of Padua , which was Austrian until 1866 , shortly afterwards he became a member of the Society for Science, Literature and Art of Venice, where he worked with a remarkable talent for speech and great energy for the dissemination of Hermann Schulze's economic theories . Delitzschs , he was also involved in founding the Venice Chamber of Commerce .

Political career

In 1869 he was appointed Secretary of State for Agriculture and Trade in the Minghetti government (1st) . During that six-month term he abolished government oversight of trading companies and promoted an in-depth investigation into the state of the industry. Although theoretically a proponent of free trade, it was de facto decisively responsible for the emergence of a protectionist economic system. In 1871 he was elected to the Italian parliament for the first time as a right- wing liberal , to which he belonged continuously until 1921. From 1871 to 1873 he was again State Secretary in the Giovanni Lanza government and devoted particular attention to the reform of the Commercial Code and the promotion of vocational training . His conduct of office was not met with unqualified applause; because of his efforts to protect workers and regulate child labor , he was accused of being too close to Adolph Wagner's socialism .

Even as a simple member of parliament, at times as chairman or deputy chairman of corresponding commissions, he was one of the key figures in Italian economic policy. In 1874 he was one of the authors of Italian banking law, advocated the establishment of the Post Office Savings Bank in 1875, took part in the trade treaty negotiations with France in 1877 , wrote the Italian customs tariff in 1878 and in the following years was chief negotiator for all trade agreements between Italy and others Countries completed.

After his appointment as Minister of Finance in the 1st cabinet of Antonio Starabba di Rudinì in 1891, he immediately abolished the system of settlements between the six central banks in Italy, which multiplied the currency in circulation and accelerated the banking crisis in 1893.

In 1896 he was finance minister in the second cabinet of Starabba di Rudinì and passed laws that would save the Bank of Naples from bankruptcy. After leaving office in 1898, he dealt with the conclusion of trade negotiations with France , while actively participating in the political and economic life of his country as an MP, journalist and professor.

He was reappointed finance minister from November 1903 to March 1905 in the cabinet of Giovanni Giolitti and for the third time from February to May 1906 in the cabinet of Sidney Sonnino . At the end of his term of office he successfully converted the Italian national debt from the previous interest rate of 5% to 4%, 3.5% and then to 3%. Other ministers before him had tried this operation without success. Although the conversion was not fully accomplished in his tenure, he was most responsible for it. This contributed significantly to the consolidation of the value of the Italian lira .

In 1910 Luigi Luzzatti became the third Prime Minister of Jewish descent in Italy after Alessandro Fortis and Sidney Sonnino . He formed a cabinet made up of representatives of various liberal tendencies, which aimed to reform the electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies and to fundamentally reform the composition of the Senate. While the electoral law reform - the extension of the active right to vote to all men who are literate - was enforced in December 1910, the reform of the Senate was rejected. The disputes over the right to vote had broken the cohesion of the various groups of the previous government majority in parliament, so Giovanni Giolitti was able to overthrow Luzzatti after less than a year in office and become prime minister himself for the fourth time. Luzzatti was accused of weak leadership and a lack of willingness to fight the opposition.

During the First World War , Luzzatti was involved in aid organizations for war refugees from the Italian-Austrian frontline and advocated the annexation of Dalmatia to Italy. From the middle of March to the end of May 1920 he was again briefly finance minister in the Nitti cabinet , which had to struggle primarily with internal unrest.

In 1921, shortly after his 80th birthday and leaving parliament after 50 years, Luzzatti was appointed senator . He stayed away from all opposition activities of his liberal political friends and devoted the last years of his life to the further expansion of the cooperative system and worker protection, for example with the establishment of the cooperative university in 1922 and the national institute for hygiene, pensions and insurance in 1924 and as honorary president of the Italian cooperative association 1925.

Publications

In addition to numerous articles in general newspapers and specialist magazines, Luzzatti wrote:

• La diffusione del credito e le banche popolari (1863).
• L'inchiesta industriale ei trattati di commercio (1878).
• Le odierne controversie economiche nelle loro attinenze colla protezione e col socialismo (1894).
• La libertà di coscienza e di scienza (1909).
  • Freedom of Conscience and Knowledge: Studies on the Separation of Church and State; only authorized translation by J. Bluwstein, Leipzig 1911
• Pro italico nomine: Published by the Dante Alighieri National Association. Translated into German by E. Sonntag-Vorbusch, Roma 1912
• Three volumes with memoirs and documents were published posthumously:
  • Memorie autobiografiche e carteggi 1: 1841-1876, Bologna 1930
  • Memorie tratte dal carteggio e da altri documenti: 1876-1900, Bologna 1935
  • Memorie 3: 1901-1927, Milano 1966, a cura di Elena De Carli, Ferruccio De Carli, Alberto De 'Stefani

Others

From 1865 to 1870, Luzzatti was President of the Milan People's Bank, then its Honorary President until his death. In 1907 he was chairman of the Cremona Cooperatives . In the Palazzo Loredan a Santo Stefano in Venice , a room in his memory was opened to mark the centenary of his appointment as President of the Council of Ministers.

literature

• Paolo Pecorari - Pierluigi Ballini:  Luzzatti, Luigi. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 66:  Lorenzetto – Macchetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2006.
• Vera Negri Zamagni : Luigi Luzzatti . In: Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero - Economia , Roma 2012

Web links

Commons : Luigi Luzzatti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Senatori dell'Italia liberale database of the Historical Archives of the Italian Senate
• Entry in the Portale storico of the Camera dei deputati
• Publications by and about Luzzatti in the Opac des Servizio bibliotecario nazionale (SBN)
• Standard entry in the Opac of the SBN
• Newspaper article about Luigi Luzzatti in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Luzzatti, Luigi. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . Volume 66, 2006.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Luzzatti, Luigi. In: C. Donzelli (Ed.): L'Unificazione italiana. Treccani, Rome 2011.
3. ^ Cabinet list in the Portale storico della Camera.
4. ↑ Proof in the SBN-Opac ( Memento of the original dated December 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Proof in the SBN-Opac ( Memento of the original dated December 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.