GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

122 THE BANK CAPITALISM OF YOUNC· BENGAL
again virtua,ly a dead· letter both as regards metallic
reserve as well as' the discounting of papers: Not only:
French and other foreign critics but eminent Italian
economists including Pareto have condemned the sean .. '
dalous lirosons between politicians and the banks that
marked the history of these two decades. The ministers of
nnance were involved in the complications amounting:
~ven to falsifications of accounts and reports. Italy was
a member of the Triple Alliance and had all expanding
war-budget. The military actions against Abyssinia
proved abortive. In order to get loans from the banks,
the government connived at everything illegal and . un ..
economic that was going on. The banks were allowed
to indulge in building speculations, land specualtions
and public works speculations of all sorts. The Banco
Romano fell in 1893 and the remaining five note-banks
were found to have destroyed or otherwise rendered im ..
mobile all their resources. 28
Italian Private Banks (1927)
We need not pursue the story of the Banca. d'ltalia
down to.our own times. Let us indeed exclude the note ..
bank of Italy from our consideration and confine our
attention to the ordinary private ba~ks. The big nine
are described as follows with their deposit figures as at
the end of 1927 :27 .
26 Canovai: Le Banche di Emissione in Italia (Rome 1912). pp. 17-140.
For ·recent development in .. private" banking (1912-22) see Segre: Lit
Banclte nell' ultimo decennio (Milan 1926}.
27 Bolletino Mensile di Statistica for August 1931 (Rome), p. 834.