Open Access
The lira : token of national (dis)union (1814–74)
Loading...
Files
WP_2018_01_Chiaruttini.pdf (737.55 KB)
Full-text in Open Access
License
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
1028-3625
Issue Date
Type of Publication
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
EUI HEC; 2018/01
Cite
CHIARUTTINI, Maria Stella, The lira : token of national (dis)union (1814–74), EUI HEC, 2018/01 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/56384
Abstract
A single currency is a powerful tool to integrate markets and instil a sense of common belonging. In nineteenth-century Italy, however, the introduction of a national currency, the lira, proved divisive, especially in the South. While it has already been argued in the literature that the South was disadvantaged in the long run by the currency union it formed with the North, this paper explores the concrete way in which monetary unification was achieved. The prolonged period of chaos following annexation stood in sharp contrast with the monetary stability the South had enjoyed under the Bourbons. Despite accounting unification, the peninsula remained divided for many years into a Northern area dominated by gold and a Southern one dominated by silver. Recoinage was further delayed once the notes of the National Bank – the former Piedmontese bank of issue – were declared inconvertible. On the one hand, inconvertibility fostered monetary integration by spreading the National Bank notes across the whole country. On the other, however, besides delaying recoinage, it generated a new monetary divide: between a North where paper money was readily accepted and a South still clinging to coin. Moreover, it impaired not only the relations of the Southern banks of issue with the privileged National Bank but those between the Southern banks themselves. Rampant speculation, favoured first by the slow and clumsy introduction of a single currency and later by note inconvertibility, could hardly be expected to rekindle national feelings, while the bitter banking antagonism reinforced regionalist aspirations.