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CONTE, Giampaolo
Funding Business in the Empire: The Case of the Italian Bank Societa Commerciale D’oriente
(1907-1915)
With the increase of the Italian economic power, Rome imperialism followed an upward trend towards the eastern
side of the Mediterranean Sea. Even if the sense of economic Imperialism was not deep-seated yet, the Italian willingness to
enlarge its influence was subject to the establishment of credit institutions throughout the Empire, mainly in the Ottoman
Rumelia and Anatolia regions. This subsequent topic aims to analyze the role of the eastern branch of Banca Commerciale
Italiana: Società Commerciale d’Oriente, from its establishment in 1907, in order to gather around the business of Venetian
businessmen, to the outbreak of Italian First World War in 1915.
Although Italy was not well-integrated in the Empire’s business network and the Italian bank was hang-by the
Italian government support in order to be competitive among foreign banks, Italy tried to extend its activities all through
the Empire. This was possible thanks to the initiatives of a fast-moving management. The managerial dynamism wanted to
compensate the bank undercapitalization compared with the biggest foreign investment banks, which had been working in
the Ottoman territory since the XIX century. This paper wants to fill up the gap concerning the Italian financial interests in
the Late Ottoman Empire by using the private archives of Banca Commerciale matched with the archive of Banca d’Italia
and the historical archive of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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