The impact of Fascist economic policies on Italian agriculture

Question 1

What did M not concern himself with in terms of agriculture?

Answer 1

The underlying problems

Question 2

What were these underlying problems?

Answer 2

The existence of a sizeable class of poor, land-hungry peasants and the use of backward, inefficient farming methods

Question 3

What did he do to agriculture as he had done to industry?

Answer 3

He occupied himself with projects that would either increase his personal power and prestige, or supposedly help Italy become a self sufficient state in case of war

Question 4

What was his first major scheme?

Answer 4

The battle for grain

Question 5

What was the battle for grain?

Answer 5

fascism’s attempt to make Italy self sufficient in the production of grain and therefore bread

Question 6

When did the battle for grain begin?

Answer 6

1925

Question 7

What was it an attempt to promote?

Answer 7

Fascist power and national self sufficiency

Question 8

What had Italy traditionally needed to do to feed its people?

Answer 8

Import large amounts of grain

Question 9

Why did M see this as a grave weakness?

Answer 9

Because in a time of war supplies could be cut off and the country would face starvation

Question 10

What would the battle for grain also do apart from solving this problem?

Answer 10

Illustrate to the world just how dynamic the fascist movement is

Question 11

What did the government do for farmers as a result of the scheme?

Answer 11

• It offered grants to enable them to buy tractors, fertilisers and other machinery necessary for wheat production
• Free advice was made available on the newest efficient farming techniques
• They were guaranteed a high price for the grain they produced

Question 12

Give some statistics to show how these incentives worked?

Answer 12

• The average harvest rose from 5.5 million tonnes per year in the early 1920s to over 7 million tonnes 10 years later

Question 13

Give a statistic to show how grain imports declined sharply?

Answer 13

They dropped 75% between 1925-35

Question 14

What was the result of the battle for grain being a resounding success for M?

Answer 14

He claimed the credit

Question 15

What did he ensure that press photographers were on hand to do?

Answer 15

Record him visiting farms and helping out the harvest

Question 16

What were the two main reasons that the battle for grain improved M’s popularity?

Answer 16

He could present himself as a genius for coming up with the scheme but he was also presented as a true leader of his people, willing to get his hands dirty in the fields

Question 17

What was the major downside of the battle for grain?

Answer 17

Much of the land in the southern and central regions that had been turned over to wheat was unsuitable from such a crop. The soil conditions and drier, hotter climate were better suited to the growing of citrus fruits or the production of wine and olive oil. The result was that these traditional agricultural exports declined

Question 18

What was the second major agricultural initiative?

Answer 18

Land reclamation and improvement

Question 19

What did this scheme also receive?

Answer 19

Major publicity

Question 20

How had previous governments made a start here?

Answer 20

They had provided money to drain or irrigate farmland

Question 21

What did M do to these schemes?

Answer 21

Expanded them

Question 22

Which area was the showpiece of this operation?

Answer 22

The Pontine marshes

Question 23

Why?

Answer 23

Because they were only 50 miles from Rome and therefore easily reached by the press

Question 24

What happened on the Pontine marshes?

Answer 24

These malarial swamps were drained and a network of small farms were set up, owned by ex-servicemen

Question 25

Why was land reclamation a success?

Answer 25

It improved public health and created thousands of jobs during the depression

Question 26

What was the main caveat here?

Answer 26

The amount of land reclaimed was limited

Question 27

Why did agricultural workers suffer more than industrial workers during the 1930s?

Answer 27

Because they suffered even heavier wage cuts

Question 28

What had been the traditional way out of agricultural poverty?

Answer 28

Emigration

Question 29

Give a statistic to prove this

Answer 29

In the first two decades of the century 200,000 Italians emigrated to the US each year, most of whom were southerners

Question 30

What did the USA decide to do from 1920?

Answer 30

Virtually stop all further immigration

Question 31

What did more Italians begin to do after this escape route was closed?

Answer 31

Left the countryside for the towns and cities to find work and a better standard of living

Question 32

Give some statistics to prove this?

Answer 32

Up to half a million people left the land in the 1920s and 30s and the population of Rome doubled between 1921-41

Question 33

What did this happen in spite of?

Answer 33

The fact that M tried to prevent all further migration

Question 34

Why was M resistant to migration to the cities?

Answer 34

Because of his love of the countryside and his desire to ruralise Italy

Question 35

Why did he want to ruralise Italy?

Answer 35

He wanted to create a prosperous class of peasants loyal to fascism

Question 36

Why did these ideas not come to fruition?

Answer 36

Because the regime did nothing to bring this about

Question 37

Why was his dream of creating a prosperous peasant class not realised?

Answer 37

Because his policies actually benefitted landowners more than the poor and landless peasants

Question 38

What kind of legislation did these peasants need?

Answer 38

A law to break up big estates and to distribute them to the peasants

Question 39

Why did this seem like it could happen?

Answer 39

Because such a law was introduced into parliament in 1922

Question 40

Why did M drop this policy?

Answer 40

For fear of offending the great landowners, who were his political supporters

Question 41

What did the failure to break up the great landed estates cement?

Answer 41

The underdevelopment and poverty of the south

Question 42

What two things caused the gap between the industrialised north and the rural south to grow?

Answer 42

Liberal governments and then to an even greater extent the neglect of the fascist regime

Question 43

What seems to indicate that M realised that his regime had failed to address the problems in the south?

Answer 43

The fact that he visited the poverty stricken island of Sicily on once after 1924

Question 44

Give some statistical proof of the regime’s inability to tackle rural poverty

Answer 44

Italy lay 18th in a table of European states for the daily caloric intake of its citizens, with the lowest figures unsurprisingly recorded in the south