Editing Economy of Italy (section)

=== Southern question ===
{{main|Southern question}}
[[File:Italy Industry 1871.svg|thumb|Normalized index of industrialization of the [[Provinces of Italy|Italian provinces]] in 1871 (the national average is 1.0). Source: [[Bank of Italy]].
{{legend|#550000|Over 1.4}}
{{legend|#D40000|From 1.1 to 1.4}}
{{legend|#FF8080|From 0.9 to 1.1}}
{{legend|#FFFFFF|Up to 0.9}}]]
[[File:Map of the Italian Diaspora in the World.svg|thumb|Map of the [[Italian diaspora]] in the world]]
In the decades following the [[unification of Italy]], the [[North Italy|northern regions of the country]], [[Lombardy]], [[Piedmont]] and [[Liguria]] in particular, began a process of industrialization and economic development while the [[Southern Italy|southern regions]] remained behind.<ref>{{Cite web|title=meridionale, questione nell'Enciclopedia Treccani|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/questione-meridionale|access-date=4 February 2021|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT|archive-date=8 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208235421/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/questione-meridionale|url-status=live}}</ref> At the time of the unification of the country, there was a shortage of entrepreneurs in the south, with landowners who were often absent from their farms as they lived permanently in the city, leaving the management of their funds to managers, who were not encouraged by the owners to make the agricultural estates to the maximum.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/latifondo_%28Enciclopedia-dei-ragazzi%29/|title=Latifondo|access-date=9 May 2022|language=it|archive-date=9 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509132143/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/latifondo_(Enciclopedia-dei-ragazzi)/|url-status=live}}</ref> Landowners invested not in agricultural equipment, but in such things as low-risk state bonds.<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite journal | last = McDonald | first = J.S. | title = Some Socio-Economic Emigration Differentials in Rural Italy, 1902-1913 | journal = Economic Development and Cultural Change | volume = 7 | issue = 1 | pages = 55–72 |date=October 1958 | doi = 10.1086/449779 | s2cid = 153889304 | issn = 0013-0079}}</ref>

In southern Italy, the unification of the country broke down the feudal land system, which had survived in the south since the [[Middle Ages]], especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies or the king. The breakdown of [[feudalism]], however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the south winding up with land of their own or land they could work and make profit from. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and so less and less productive, as land was subdivided amongst heirs.<ref name="MacDonald"/>

This gap between northern and southern Italy, called "[[southern question]]", was also induced by the region-specific policies selected by the post-unitary governments.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796|last=Duggan|first=Christopher|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|year=2008|location=New York, NY|pages=141}}</ref> For example, the 1887 protectionist reform, instead of safeguarding the arboriculture sectors crushed by 1880s fall in prices, shielded the Po Valley wheat breeding and those Northern textile and manufacturing industries that had survived the liberal years due to state intervention.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unità Nazionale e Sviluppo Economico 1750–1913|last=Pescosolido|first=Guido|publisher=Edizioni Nuova Cultura|location=Roma|pages=64, 177–182, 202}}</ref> A similar logic guided the assignment of monopoly rights in the steamboat construction and navigation sectors and, above all, the public spending in the railway sector, which represented 53% of the 1861–1911 total.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/quaderni-storia/2011-0022/index.html?com.dotmarketing.htmlpage.language=1|title=Convergence among Italian Regions, 1861–2011|last=Giovanni Iuzzolino, Guido Pellegrini and|first=Gianfranco Viesti|access-date=1 December 2018|archive-date=29 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729135556/https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/quaderni-storia/2011-0022/index.html?com.dotmarketing.htmlpage.language=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

The resources necessary to finance the public spending effort were obtained through highly unbalanced land property taxes, which affected the key source of savings available for investment in the growth sectors absent a developed banking system.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Unità Nazionale e Sviluppo Economico 1750–1913|last=Pescosolido|first=Guido|publisher=Edizioni Nuova Cultura|year=2014|location=Roma|pages=90–92, 118–120, 157}}</ref> Given the inability of the government to estimate the land profitability, especially because of the huge differences among the regional cadast:ers, this policy irreparably induced large regional discrepancies.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=La Politica Fiscale e le Entrate Effettive del Regno d'Italia 1860–1890|last=Parravicini|first=Giannino|publisher=ILTE|year=1958|location=Turin}}</ref> This policy destroyed the relationship between the central state and the Southern population by unchaining first a civil war called [[Brigandage in Southern Italy after 1861|Brigandage]], which brought about 20,000 victims by 1864 and the militarization of the area, and then [[Italian diaspora| favouring emigration, especially from 1892 to 1921]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Modern Italy: A Political History|last=Smith|first=Dennis M.|publisher=[[University of Michigan]] Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-472-10895-4|location=[[Ann Arbor]]|pages=209–210}}</ref>

The north–south gap was intensified by language differences.  Southerners spoke the [[Sicilian language]] or a variation of it: a language that developed from Latin and other influences independently of and prior to the Tuscan dialect that was adopted as the official Italian language ("standard Italian"). The [[Sicilian language]] is a complete, distinct language with its own vocabulary, syntax and grammar rules, the latter being less complex than standard Italian. But because of its similarity to Italian, northerners incorrectly assumed that it was an imperfect dialect of Italian and denigrated it as the "dialect of the poor and ignorant".  This has led to continued bias by the North against southerners who "don't speak proper Italian".

After the rise of [[Benito Mussolini]], the "Iron Prefect" [[Cesare Mori]] tried to defeat the already powerful [[Organized crime in Italy|criminal organizations flourishing in the South]] with some degree of success. Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an [[Italian Empire]] and Southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards the colonies. With the invasion of Southern Italy during [[World War II]], the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] restored the authority of the mafia families, lost during the Fascist period, and used their influence to maintain public order.<ref>{{cite book|last=Newark|first=Tim|title=Mafia Allies: The True Story of America's Secret Alliance with the Mob in World War II|year=2007|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|location=London|isbn=978-0-7603-2457-8|pages=123–135}}</ref>  Mussolini also established laws requiring standard Italian to be taught in school, and discouraging the use of local Italian dialects throughout the nation, as well as the Sicilian language. 

In the 1950s the [[Cassa per il Mezzogiorno]] was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialize the South, aiming to do this in two ways: through land reforms creating 120,000 new [[smallholding]]s, and through the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the South, thus boosting the Southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and as a result, the South became increasingly subsidized and state-dependent, incapable of generating private growth itself.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy/27779/The-south|title=Italy: The South|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|date=3 February 2015|access-date=9 February 2015|archive-date=9 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209122655/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy/27779/The-south|url-status=live}}</ref>

The imbalance between North and South was reduced in the 1960s and 1970s through the construction of public works, the implementation of agrarian and scholastic reforms,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Torres|first=Raymond|date=May 2014|title=Sintesi del rapporto-Rapporto sul mondo del lavoro 2014: L'occupazione al centro dello sviluppo|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wow3.54|journal=World of Work Report|volume=2014|issue=1|pages=i–8|doi=10.1002/wow3.54|issn=2049-9280}}</ref> the expansion of industrialization and the improved living conditions of the [[Population of Italy|population]]. This convergence process was interrupted, however, in the 1980s. To date, the per capita [[GDP]] of the South is just 58% of that of the [[North Italy|Center-North]],<ref>{{Cite web|date=2 February 2012|title=Principali aggregati dei conti economici regionali|url=https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/52316|access-date=4 February 2021|website=www.istat.it|language=it|archive-date=8 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208225253/https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/52316|url-status=live}}</ref> but this gap is mitigated by the fact that there the [[cost of living]] is around 10-15% lower on average (with even more differences between small towns and big cities) than that in the North of Italy.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-10-25|title=Le statistiche sui livelli dei prezzi al consumo sul territorio: primi risultati e prospettive. La domanda di informazioni sui differenziali territoriali tra i prezzi.|url=https://www.istat.it/it/files/2011/01/Cannari_intervento.pdf|access-date=2022-01-18|website=www.istat.it|language=it|archive-date=23 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123013721/https://www.istat.it/it/files/2011/01/Cannari_intervento.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In the South the unemployment rate is more than double (6.7% in the North against 14.9% in the South).<ref>{{Cite web|date=2 April 2012|title=Occupati e disoccupati|url=https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/58306|access-date=4 February 2021|website=www.istat.it|language=it|archive-date=3 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203192616/https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/58306|url-status=live}}</ref> A study by Censis blames the pervasive presence of [[Italian Criminal Law System|criminal organizations]] for the delay of Southern Italy, estimating an annual loss of wealth of 2.5% in the South in the period between 1981–2003 due to their presence, and that without them the per capita GDP of the South would have reached that of the North.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Senza la mafia il Sud raggiunge il Nord|url=http://www.censis.it/10?resource_50=4721|access-date=4 February 2021|website=Censis|language=it|archive-date=7 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107000129/http://www.censis.it/10?resource_50=4721|url-status=dead}}</ref>