ABSTRACT
The history of the relationships between the Italian Fascist regime and the entrepreneurs offers the opportunity to consider several aspects of Italian economic history for various reasons. The twenty-year regime was the result of political choices of the ruling classes of Liberal Italy, and especially of their weakness in managing a mass society, as was Italy in the era of the First World War. But in a way it was also the result of a too rapid process of industrialization. This was exacerbated by the necessities of the war effort, which created an industrial structure overdimensioned for the real possibilities of the domestic market and the capabilities of the Italian firms to win the competition in foreign markets. 1 Thus the request arising from the business community for greater state intervention to support the domestic market and to guarantee the outlet of industrial production was accompanied by the reaction against the bureaucracy which ruled the transactions between the state and the private sector during the war. 2
