Papers presented by Francesca Fauri since 2019
2020 Charlotte, North Carolina
"The Italian State’s Active Assistance to the Aeronautical Industry: The Case of the Caproni Group (1921-1951)"
Francesca Fauri, University of Bologna
Abstract:
The origins of the Gruppo Caproni date back to 1908 when Gianni Caproni started manufacturing his first aircraft in the Vizzola plant, in the moorland of Malpensa in Northern Italy. World War I proved immensely beneficial for the group, which provided the state with its famous three-engine bombers. After the conflict it started incorporating Italy’s major engineering/aircraft companies (Isotta Fraschini, CAMSA, CAB, etc.). In the interwar period Caproni became Italy’s main aircraft producer, due to Ministry of War orders and state financial help. Based on Italian and foreign archival sources, this research article underlines a few interesting facts that have characterised this cooperation: the growing financial assistance of the Bank of Italy and IMI (Istituto Mobiliare Italiano, a state-controlled financial institution) and the company’s rising level of indebtedness started to concern government authorities. Mussolini’s appointment of General Augusto Graziani as external supervisor to the Group was an interesting choice, since the General’s letters express enthusiastic support for the company’s production goals and noticeably underplay its financial problems. After World War II, Italy’s aircraft companies were forbidden from accepting new orders until the signing of the Peace Treaty (February 1947), and most of them started manufacturing other types of equipment. In the following years the state gave only limited help to the Group, which soon went bankrupt. However, many of the Caproni’s controlled firms were nationalised (under the IRI umbrella) and some continue to prosper and have preserved the aeronautical industry’s heritage. As one looks back on those years, it emerges quite clearly how the state’s active support of Caproni during the interwar period and the nationalization of some of its firms in the aftermath of the war represented the only way to keep this sector alive, establish important records/patents and sustain the human capital competencies.