Italian Economists and the Railway Issue at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Efforts to reorganize the railways in Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century led to the promulgation of Law n. 137/1905, which ratified the nationalization of the lines. Hence, an autonomous institution under the control of the Ministry of Public Works, aspiring to operate as an industrial company, subjected to limited political influences and accounting controls, administrated the railways. This paper reconstructs the debate that arose shortly before and in the immediate aftermath of the promulgation of the law. As will be discussed, Nofri, Trevisonno, Pantaleoni, Einaudi, Pareto, and Borgatta not only addressed the possibility to entrust the administration of the railways to a workers' cooperative, as the public operation had displayed critical issues, but they also seized the opportunity to foster the establishment of a socialist system based on trade union ownership. [Publisher's text]