At first appearance this campaign seems to have had a very positive effect on the Italian economy and to Mussolini’s domestic aims. However, there was a large side-effect to the whole scheme. Much of the land had now been turned over to produce grain – land that was very fit for this crop. The climate in Italy was more suited to grow other crops such as citrus fruits, olives, or wine grapes. Now that all this land had been used for the purpose of grain, there was a lot less land to grow the more efficient crops. This resulted in a reasonably strong decline in exports of traditional products. Although Mussolini was now happy that Italy was more or less closer to self-sufficiency, people now needed to pay more for bread as import taxes for grain rose. Although this ‘Battle for Grain’ campaign was somewhat successful, it also did quite some harm to the economy as a whole.
Mussolini also expanded a project which was already started by local governments. This was to drain or irrigate farmland and to provide more land to the farmers. An area known as the ‘Pontine Marshes’ was completely drained and replaced with a large area for agriculture. Because these marshes were a source of bacteria and infected mosquitoes, it not only gave jobs to thousands of workers during the Depression, but it also imporved public health. Ultimately, this project was to some extent a success, although not much land was reclaimed and given to farmers thus having only minor positive effects.
In addition to these agricultural policies, Mussolini also had some reasonably successful economic policies. One of these was the introduction of a new organisation known as the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI). This organisation was implemented as a result of the worldwide economic depression in the early 1930s. This organisation’s purpose was to take over the role of the banks and loan money to industries. It also promoted industrial technique and successfully managed to furthermore industrialize Italy. Although this scheme costed a fairly large increase to taxpayers, it helped Italy through the economic depression which many democratic countries were suffering from. USA, being one of the greatest sufferers from the economic depression, copied this type of policy when establishing America’s ‘New Deal’. Mussolini also took credit for electrifying 5,000km of railroad. He claimed it to be one of his greatest achievments and stated that all the trains now ran on time.
In contrary of these economic and agricultural policies, Mussolini also encountered some failures within his policies. In a strive to increase Italy’s population from 40 million to 60 million by 1950, Mussolini launched the ‘Battle for Births’ in 1927. Many incentives were placed to encourage marriage and child-birth. Marriage loans were given to increase the desire for children, and as more chilrden were born, less of the loan needed to be paid back. Mussolini himself stated that 12 children is the ideal number for the average family to have. Families with six chilrden were awarded with a tax-free life. To the high-achievers, Mussolini personally gave out awards. Regardless of all these encouragements, the population of Italy barely exceeded 47 million in 1950. There was an obvious failure in the attempt to raise the birth rate and population of Italy regardless to Mussolini’s efforts, although unemployment slightly decreased as unmarried women were sacked of their jobs. One of the possible reasons would be the economic depression, and the cost of raising large families.
With the goal of decreasing the exchange rate from the lire to the pound, Mussolini attempted to set a new exchange rate of 90 lire to a pound as opposed to 150 lire to a pound. Although Mussolini’s main aim of increasing his prestige was fulfilled, there were some negative consequences which followed. All in all, this policy was quite a failure as it almost doubled the price of local products for foreign buyers. Export industries effectively went into a market depression. Fiat cars exports were decreased due to this reformed currency policy. If one looks at the ultimate effect of this scheme, it is quite clear that it was to no positive use for the Italian public. Although reevaluating the currency should have made imports cheaper for the Italians, Mussolini raised the taxation on imports causing them to become more expensive. Only steel, armaments, and ship companies benefited from the change as they needed large imports of raw material which they got tax-free, as these types of industries were promoted in the fascist state.
It seems to be that the failures of Mussolini’s domestic policies outweight the successes. Perhaps it is fair to say that the biggest success was the introduction of the IRI as it helped to industrialize Italy, yet the scale of this success was not close to that of his failures. Wanting to create a population of 60 million in 1950 was amongst the biggest failures of his domestic policies. Though it must be said that many of Mussolini’s policies, which were regarded as failures to the public, were successful in his own eyes. His goal of gaining prestige by reevaluating the lire was achieved, thus one could say that this was a successful policy. However, this policy was not successful in the respect of Italy as a whole. To conclude, if we look back at Mussolini’s primary and main aim – to create an Italian state which resembles the Ancient Roman Empires power and role in Europe, and one that is self-sufficient in a time of war, I think it is safe to say the the Duce greatly failed to achieve this. At the time the war broke out, Italy was not near the state of being self-sufficient. As Mussolini had hoped, Italy did not have a powerful military to boast about. All in all, Mussolini encountered some successes while overcoming his obstacles of his primary aims. I think it is fair to say that Mussolini failed as a leader to accomplish his ideal state.
Bibliography
Robson, Mark. Italy: Liberalism and Fascism 1870-1945. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992
Blinkhorn, Martin. Mussolini and Fascist Italy. England: Routledge, 1884
Mann, Richard. <www.charlton.ac.uk/mathew/essays/mussolini.htm>. 2001
