If these aims were to be met the economy would have had to be capable of building and maintaining a modern war machine, and would require a population of tough, disciplined and warlike citizens. Italy had to be economically self-sufficient.
Italy had very limited amounts of raw materials, the north was modernising but the south was more backward and there was limited literacy amongst the people.
At first Mussolini adopted liberal policies to reduce government intervention and to promote investment, however for the long run he knew the importance of the economy and had to decide weather to continue these policies or follow the radical Fascists.
The fascist method of organising the economy was to promote national interest above sectional interests; they wanted a society where all people involved in economic activity to work together for national interest this corporativism was a third way between Capitalism and socialism or the Fascist ideology.
The battle for the Lira, Grain and Marshes were used by Mussolini to mobilise the Italian people. However in realty these battles just meant taking resources from one to another and as a result one had to suffer so they were not sustainable or realistic economic policies.
Mussolini also wanted to make Italy more self-sufficient, however this was not successful economically or militarily. Although Italy became virtually self sufficient in grain, it still depended largely on imports for other basic needs. Due to a lack of foreign currency during 1930s Italy was unable to import raw materials for its military.
During the great depression Fascist Italy was not affected as its European neighbours. This was because there was very strong government intervention to help out any parts of the economy needing it. However one could say Italy was not significantly involved in the European economic picture to be affected greatly in the first place. However I think the government help did prevent widespread unrest and political turmoil seen elsewhere but the Fascist corporative ideology was irrelevant in this case.
The Fascist state did provide welfare for the population by providing health care in some places, pensions, improving working conditions, childcare help and special payments were used to practice this policy. This was not very impressive but did help stabilise any social unrest.
Over all Italy was more prosperous by 1940. On average the gross domestic product increased by 1.2 per cent per year, but this was not filtering through to all sections of the Italian population.
The industrialists and landowners in the north profited the most and so did the middle class. The increase in public employees meant an increase in educated population and secure jobs for the middle class.
The peasantry were not benefiting despite Mussolini’s slogan of giving the peasants more land.
Mussolini’s preoccupations meant that the country’s ‘old problems’ – rural poverty, the north-south divide and illiteracy – were largely ignored and also the living standards of the population in the south was very poor.
