Italian Stratigic Resources and Industry

[DrG]

Thanks

[DrG]

I have found an somewhat interesting book published by the Bank of Italy: "Il commercio estero italiano, 1862-1950". It is mainly focused on the financial value of import/export, not on the quantities, which are by far the most important aspect to evaluate the resources available by the real economy.

Yet, I think that this table can be useful, because it provides a long time series, which allows to make comparisons between pre-war and wartime imports of energetic raw materials (coal and crude oil), although it doesn't take into account refined fuels, and grain.
Coal and grain are measured in tons, while oil in quintals (0.1 t).

Clearly, Italy had to fight WW2 with a fraction (a fifth, more or less) of its pre-war imports of crude oil, and surely fuel imports (which existed also before the war, anyway) did not cover this huge deficit.

It is also interesting to notice the sharp increase in price of these imports in 1940, due not only to the war scarcity, but probably also by the more expensive transport means. Instead, the increase in 1936 and 1937 is merely caused by the devaluation of Italian lira during 1936 and prices since 1946 are very high due to post-war hyperinflation.

[Brady]

These are total imports ?

And oil (all fuel) is in 1/10 of a metric ton ? 100kg ?

[DrG]

Yes, totals; and oil (NOT fuel, only crude oil) is in 1/10th of metric ton.

[Brady]

The grain numbers are pretty sobering, where were they getting it from USSR pre-war ?

It looks like they came pretty close to getting 12 million tons of coal on that list annually

[DrG]

The grain numbers are pretty sobering, where were they getting it from USSR pre-war ?
It looks like they came pretty close to getting 12 million tons of coal on that list annually

In the Thirties, according to page 38 of the Bank of Italy book, imports of grain from USSR were the third in importance, with a share of 7.6%, after the USA (19.5%) and Argentina (13.5%).
According to Zamagni, p. 24, the average calories per capita of Italian population were:
1938: 2,734
1939: 2,657
1940: 2,631
1941: 2,514
1942: 2,362
1943: 2,113
1944: 1,865
1945: 1,747
Therefore, the lower imports of grain had a role, but not too strong, on Italian food. Probably, the exports of food to Germany had a larger impact.
Coal was still about 10% less than the required amount and less than during peace time.

[DrG]

In pages 159-160 of the book "Sommario di statistiche storiche, 1861-1955" by the ISTAT (the official bureau of statistics in Italy), I have found this very useful table of Italian imports of raw materials, measured in thousands of quintals (i.e. hundreds of metric tons, 1 quintal = 0.1 ton, please remind that the dot is the symbol for grouping thousands):

ISTAT2.jpg (170.91 KiB) Viewed 1569 times

ISTAT.jpg (164.88 KiB) Viewed 1569 times

This time, it seems that the amount of oil products includes also refined fuels, not only crude oil. Note that the columns of "scrap iron..." "Rottami di ferro" and "pig iron" "Ghisa" seem to be somewhat interchangeable and therefore should be evaluated together.

[Brady]

Thank you again...

I have been reading a bit around the subject of Italian RR's and have discovered that at this time (the war) they did run at least in part on Electricity

I suppose in a very general since coal consumption by the RR's was part of the industrial base, as the RR's were there lifelines

But this gets around to the subject of Coal consumption by the Civilians

Of course the discovery of natural gas above also suggests they had a means beyond wood, for heating and cooking apart from Coal

…………..

Currently, and please correct me if I am wrong, but it certainly seams that the rail link to Germany was more or less at capacity, even with the Swiss rail links, so its unlikely they could of sent more Coal over that system even if they wanted to ?

I suppose they could of sent it through France to a Port and then moved it to Italy ?

[DrG]

I have been reading a bit around the subject of Italian RR's and have discovered that at this time (the war) they did run at least in part on Electricity
I suppose in a very general since coal consumption by the RR's was part of the industrial base, as the RR's were there lifelines
But this gets around to the subject of Coal consumption by the Civilians
Of course the discovery of natural gas above also suggests they had a means beyond wood, for heating and cooking apart from Coal

The Italian railway system was the most electrified in the world, yet the use of coal fired locomotives was still relevant too.
The calorific energy of the tiny natural gas production was barley enough to supplement the minimum survival of civilians in the towns around the gas fields, given the absence of gas pipelines, it must not be regarded as anything more than a little help.

Currently, and please correct me if I am wrong, but it certainly seams that the rail link to Germany was more or less at capacity, even with the Swiss rail links, so its unlikely they could of sent more Coal over that system even if they wanted to ?
I suppose they could of sent it through France to a Port and then moved it to Italy ?

The usual explanation, as I have already written, is based upon German desire of blackmailing Italy, preventing it from creating any stocks larger than a few weeks of consumption, and often less. The transport to France would have required even more trains, given the longer distance, plus ships, and the consent of Vichy France (until Nov. 1942): completely unfeasible.

In sum, you have practically all the necessary data to draw your conclusions, and much more when you will get a copy of Raspin's book (which is a masterpiece, but is also somewhat old and makes extensive use of German documents: when you find discrepancies with the Italian data that I have provided, take into account that Zamagni, Petri, etc. wrote after Raspin, knowing her work, and used Italian documents).

Honestly, I cannot see how a country heavily depending on imports and importing, during the war, far less raw materials than in peace time, especially with regards to "bottleneck materials" such as oil products and non-ferrous metals, could wage a war in an efficient way. Not to talk about the fact that energetic sources are not perfect substitutes of each other (as sometimes it is implied by macro economic analyses which sum anthracite, lignite, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, hydroelectric energy, etc.) and instead each one has its own function.

Germany and Japan fought in conditions comparable to Italy only in the last stages of the war and, not surprisingly, their economic and military performance in those times were far from sufficient. Both the larger powers of the Tripartite Pact fought some of their campaigns solely to get the control of some raw materials (iron ore, oil, rubber, tin, etc.), and the reasons underlying these campaigns are usually seen as understandable and rational by professional and amateur historians. When Italy entered the Spanish Civil war and then attacked Greece for precisely the same reasons, yet the only explanation provided by most of the not many historians studying the Italian war (usually ignorant of the most basic economic facts, not to talk about their ideologic/nationalist bias), followed by the average internet forum member, is that Mussolini was just a howler monkey and the Italian strategy was to reenact the Roman Empire...

[Brady]

Well... I am not done with you yet... But the Library called and her book is otw, so hopefully I will have it today or early next week

[Dili]

Italian railways were already the most electrified before the war.

You can see that Brenner was electrified in 1939 but to reach that line it needs to go trough a steam line.

[Brady]

Nice map, I have a book on Italian RR's otw, hopefully it will have more detail, Having no idea about the Italian Electrical Grid at this time, idk how much was provided by Hydro or how much by Coal, power generation, I mean they could be electric lines but if there still Coal generated... Presumably its far more efficient to generate power for a train than to power a train with Coal directly ?

[DrG]

Italian production of electric energy by source of energy (from ISTAT, "Sommario di statistiche storiche, 1861-1955", p. 135). "Termoelettrica" means it was made by using a fuel, in these years it was always coal. Geothermal energy was produced only in Tuscany, near Larderello; the plant was opened in 1911 and was the only geothermal electric plant in the world until 1958.

[Brady]

!, I was not expecting that, wow

[Dili]

Yep, vast majority of it was hydro.In that sense and also the rail electric grid Italy was quite modern by necessity.