LUIGI

See also:

• LUIGI LUZZATTI (1841- )

LUZZATTI (1841- )  , Italian economist and financier, was born of Jewish parents at Venice on the 11th of March 1841 . After completing his studies in law at the university of Padua, he attracted the attention of the Austrian police by his lectures on political economy, and was obliged to emigrate . In 1863 he obtained a professorship at the Milan Technical Institute; in 1867 he was appointed professor of constitutional law at Padua, whence he was transferred to the university of Rome . Gifted with eloquence and energy, he popularized in Italy the economic ideas of Schultze-Delitzsch, worked for the establishment of a commercial college at Venice, and contributed to the spread of people's banks on a basis of limited liability throughout the country . In 1869 he was appointed by Minghetti under secretary of state to the ministry of agriculture and commerce, in which capacity he abolished government control over commercial companies and promoted a state inquiry into the conditions of industry . Though theoretically a free trader, he was largely instrumental in creating the Italian protective system . In 1877 he participated in the commercial negotiations with France, in 1878 compiled the Italian customs tariff, and subsequently took a leading part in the negotiations of all the commercial treaties between Italy and other countries . Appointed minister of the treasury in the first Di Rudini cabinet of 1891, he imprudently abolished the system of frequent clearings of bank-notes between the state banks, a measure which facilitated the duplication of part of the paper currency and hastened the bank crisis of 1893 . In 1896 he entered the second Di Rudini cabinet as minister of the treasury, and by timely legislation helped to save the bank of Naples from failure . After his fall from office in June 1898, his principal achievement was the negotiation of the Franco-Italian commercial treaty, though, as deputy, journalist and professor, he continued to take an active part in all political and economic manifestations . He was again minister of the treasury from November 1903 to March 1905 in Giolitti's second administration, and for the third time from February to May 1906, under Sonnino's premiership . During the latter term of office he achieved the conversion of the Italian 5% debt (reduced to 4% by the tax) to 31% to be eventually lowered to 31%, an operation which other ministers had attempted without success; although the actual con-version was not completed until after the fall of the cabinet ofwhich he formed part the merit is entirely his .

In 1907 he was

president of the co-operative congress at Cremona . See L . Carpi's Risorgimento Italiano, vol. ii . (Milan, 1886), which contains a biographical sketch of Luzzatti .