Fascist politics and autarkic economy in a compared perspective : the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (I.R.I.) and the Instituto Nacional de Industria (I.N.I.), 1933-1959

Abstract

The research project is centred on Spanish economic policies from 1937 to 1959, which guided the creation and development of the Instituto Nacional de Industria (the Spanish State-owned company, I.N.I. hereafter). Particular attention will be paid to the similarities, or differences, between these policies and those of Fascist Italy during the 1930s until the 1950s, especially as referred to the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (the Italian State-owned company, I.R.I. hereafter). I aim to capture the analogies between the two public entities, I.N.I. and I.R.I., through the analysis of their financial ratios, statutes, sector investment and production. If it is true that, in Italy, different economic policies were applied all along from the thirties to the fifties, some of them were autarkic. I.R.I can be seen as a reflection of the regime’s will, mirroring, mirroring the evolution of Italian economic policies. Since the different roles of the I.R.I. and its adaptation to the decisionmaking process of the Italian regime have not been considered by the literature that dealt with the I.N.I., especially with respect to the classification of the autarkic models that the I.R.I. was called to apply, my research attempts to identify which of the I.R.I. roles were copied by the I.N.I., and in particular whether it was the ‘war autarkic’ model, adopted by the I.R.I. between 1939 and 1943. Particular attention will also be dedicated to explaining why the creation of the I.N.I. was inspired by the Italian model of the I.R.I. The ultimate purpose of my project will be to provide a new insight on the economic policies of the First Francoism by discussing whether postwar policy in Spain was a continuity of the ‘war autarkic’ policy of the Civil War, and not just a ‘normal autarkic’ policy.