History:European and World History Period Studies:Modern 1795-2003 - Benito Mussolini overview

1922 - 39 Key Economic Periods

1922 onwards - Mussolini comes to office with no specific programme and pruses traditional liberal economic policies of lowering inflation and limited government intervention. There was economic recovery in Italy from this point.

1927 onwards - Economy begins to weaken; partly caused by the overvaluation of the lira.

1929 onwards - Italy is hit by the Great Depression. Mussolini responds by increasing government intervention to bail out the industrialists. Efforts are made to to establish the distinctly Fascist Corporative State.

1936 onwards - The economy is increasingly harmed by the stress on autarky and the needs of war.

Chronology

1922 October - Lira valued at 90 to the £

1923 - Law passed on reclamation of land (Battle of the Marshes begins)

1924 - Loans from US start (end in 1929)

1925 - Battle for the Grain announced - high tariffs put on imported grain, new marginal land used that was expensive to farm and government grants to farmers to but machinery and fertilisers.

1925 - Opera Nazionale Dopolavaro (OND) created.

1926 April - Rocco Law passed - could only be one trade union…