Thread by @CatSauraGa

But Italian bourgeoisie was wealthy: what did they do? They invested: “#money was taken out of national circuits to be invested in whatever foreign government loans looked promising” and in the agricultural production in nearby lands.

Rich Italians became gentlemen farmers and rentiers, no longer merchants and industrialists. As Bas van Bavel has recently argued in “The Invisible Hand?”,

the #financialization of the economy spelled the doom of #Italy. It was wealthy but it was producing less and less, its fleets shrinking, its industrial output declining.

glineq.blogspot.com/2020/07/darkne…