On Monday 19 March at 17 in Rome, in the Intesa Sanpaolo branch in via del Corso 226, there will be a meeting open to the public which will explore the issue of naval credit history with the presentation of the volume "Shipowners, banks and the State" published by Il Mulino.
They will be present, in addition to the author Roberto Giulianelli who is professor of Economic History and History of Industry and Consumption at the Polytechnic University of the Marches, Vera Zamagni, Professor of Economic History at the University of Bologna, as well as author of some volumes on IMI published by Il Mulino; George Lombard, who was in charge of the IMI History Project and head of the IMI Studies Office; Maria Emanuela Marinelli, official of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendency of Lazio, delegated to deal with the company archives present in the region and Barbara Costa, head of the historical archive of Intesa Sanpaolo.
The volume reconstructs the genesis, evolution and impact on the maritime industry of one of the "special credits" introduced in Italy between the 1940th and XNUMXth centuries. Suppressed in XNUMX, its responsibilities were taken over by IMI, an institution of which the Intesa Sanpaolo Historical Archive holds and manages the historical documentation, a cultural heritage of great importance for the Italian economic history. During the event archive images from the historical archive of IMI, now Intesa Sanpaolo, will be projected.
The Istituto di Credito Navale, established by Royal Decree Law of 5 July 1928, no. 1817, was born in a period of saturation of the international shipbuilding market and of financial crisis of the main Italian shipowning companies; it was designed by Alberto Beneduce, who was its president until 1940, and had the purpose of disbursing medium-long term loans to Italian shipowning companies at subsidized rates; the borrowed sums were to be used for the development and increase of the Italian merchant fleet.
One of the largest loans was disbursed by the Istituto di Credito Navale to the Italian General Navigation Company for the construction of the ocean liner Rex, one of the most luxurious steamers produced in those years. The loans granted to the Cosulich Company, Lloyd Sabaudo and Navigazione Generale were incorporated into the contracts stipulated by ICN with SA Italia, which was the first concentration of shipping companies established in Italy, in which Banca Commerciale Italiana also participated.
The ICN was dissolved in 1940, and its assets and liabilities were transferred to IMI and to the Consorzio per Sovvenzioni su Valori Industriali, which since 1936 had become an autonomous section of IMI. Naval credit activities remained the prerogative of IMI until 1962, the year in which a special Autonomous Naval Credit Section was set up within IMI. The documents of the “Istituto per il Credito Navale (ICN)” fund – equal to 58 folders, all inventoried and open to consultation by scholars and the interested public – allow us to know the first financing methods specifically designed for the shipping industry. In fact, these are the papers that were delivered in June 1940 at the time of the dissolution of the Institute and the
transfer of its functions to IMI.
