Angelo Messedaglia on Money and the Nineteenth Century Italian Economic School

Abstract

This article on Messedaglia might start with Schumpeter's words: “I have chosen him for mention because of the strategic position he holds in the history of Italian economics and statistics”. In fact the Italian history of economics in the nineteenth century is populated by many authors who were rather famous during their lifetime but less and less appreciated later. Generally speaking it can be said, again with Schumpeter, that “the economic research which was done during this period in the various centres of national life … was not on the same level with the achievements of either the earlier times of Beccaria and Verri or the later times of Pantaleoni and Pareto…. And if it is true that “the political and administrative structure of every nation reflects itself in the organisation of its scientific work” (ibid.) the difficulties faced by Italy, trying first to get rid of foreign domination and, secondly, to build national unity, can explain the trouble Italian economists have had in disentangling themselves from foreign influence and in avoiding divisions into regional schools of thought. Angelo Messedaglia is one of the few able to be original and not provincial, as will be shown later; instead, at this point it would seem useful to give a brief account of the historical situation of Italy in the nineteenth century.

Citation

Pellanda, A. (1987), "Angelo Messedaglia on Money and the Nineteenth Century Italian Economic School", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 14 No. 7/8/9, pp. 170-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb014080