Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:24:03.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Between Agnelli and Mussolini: Ford's Unsuccessful Attempt to Penetrate the Italian Automobile Market in the Interwar Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Pier Angelo Toninelli
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article discusses a chapter of the interwar history of the Ford Motor Company in Europe rather neglected by historians, namely its unsuccessful attempt to erect a solid base of operations in Italy. Expansion onto the Italian market had been part of the post-WWI Ford's strategy of internationalization. It seemed to go well beyond the exploitation of an additional demand as its most interesting and promising aspect was the utilization of the Italian branch as a bridgehead into the Balkans, the East Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and North-East Africa. At the beginning this strategy turned out successful. But when in the late 1920s the Company tried to strenghten its position in the country—either setting up its own assembly plant or establishing a joint venture with an Italian firm—its attempt was blocked. To date scholars have focused exclusively on the political and economic barriers to entry erected by the fascist regime, urged by the powerful Fiat lobby. This was certainly the main cause. Yet, this study shows that on several occasions Ford hesitated and even hung back from acting. Therefor a few chances were missed: the most glamorous being an agreement with Fiat itself, so far ignored by historiography.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 335 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Amatori, Franco. Impresa e mercato. Lancia 1906–1969. Bologna, Italy: il Mulino, 1996.Google Scholar
Amatori, Franco and Jones, Geoffry, eds. Business History Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Anselmi, Angelo T. Isotta Fraschini. Segrate, Italy: Milan, 1977.Google Scholar
Apollonio, Almerigo. Dagli Asburgo a Mussolini: Venezia Giulia 1918–1922. Gorizia, Italy: Libreria Editrice Goriziana, 2001.Google Scholar
Apollonio, Almerigo. Venezia Giulia e fascismo, 1922–1935: una societa post-asburgica negli anni di consolidamento della dittatura mussoliniana. Gorizia, Italy: Libreria Editrice Goriziana, 2004.Google Scholar
Fiat, Archivio Storico. Fiat: le fasi della crescita. Tempi e cifre dello sviluppo aziendale. Turin, Italy: Paravia, 1996.Google Scholar
Bigazzi, Duccio. Il Portello. Operai, tecnici e imprenditori all’Alfa-Romeo 1906–1926. Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli, 1990.Google Scholar
Caves, Richard E. Multinational Enterprises and Economic Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Cova, Alberto ed. Il dilemma dell’integrazione. L‘inserimento dell’economia italiana nel sistema occidentale (1945–1957). Milan, Italy: Angeli, 2007.Google Scholar
Bonin, Hubert, Yannick, Lung, and Tolliday, Steven, eds. Ford. The European History 1903–2003, 2volumes. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar
Castronovo, Valerio. FIAT 1899–1999. Un secolo di storia italiana. Milan, Italy: Rizzoli, 1999.Google Scholar
Djelic, Marie-Laure. Exporting the American Model. The Post-War Transformation of the American Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Dunning, John H. The Globalization ofBusiness. London: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Gerschenkron, Alexander. Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, a Book of Essays. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Andrea, and Piscitello, Lucia. Le multinazionali. Imprese e mercati globali. Bologna, Italy: il Mulino, 2007.Google Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. The Evolution of International Business. An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
Lussana, Carolina and Mantegazza, Amilcare. La Fiat e i veicoli industriali. Quaderni dell’ Archivio Storico Fiat, 2. Turin, Italy: Paravia, 1997.Google Scholar
Storico Fiat, Progetto Archivio. Fiat 1899’1930. Storia e documenti. Milan, Italy: Fabbri editori, 1991.Google Scholar
Storico Fiat, Progetto Archivio. Fiat 1915-1939-Verbali del consiglio di amministrazione. Vol. II: 1923/1930. Milan, Italy: Fabbri Editore, 1987.Google Scholar
Sapelli, Giulio. Trieste Italiana. Mito e destino economico. Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli, 1990.Google Scholar
Schröter, Harm G. Americanization of the European Economy: A Compact Survey of American Economic Influence in Europe since the 1880s. Dor-drecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2005.Google Scholar
agricoli, Utenti motori. Quarant–anni di motorizzazione agricola in Italia, 1928–67. Rome, Italy: UMA, 1968.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Mira and Hill, Frank E.. American Business Abroad. Ford on Six Continents. Detroit, MI: Wayne State Univeristy Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Jonathan and Herrigel, Gary, eds. Americanization and Its Limits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

An. “Rassegna di meccanica agraria.” L–economia nazionale, 15, n. 3 (nuova serie), marzo (1933): 114–17.Google Scholar
Benfratello, and Sembenelli, Alessandro. “Foreign Ownership and Productivity: Is the Direction of Causality so Obvious?” International Journal of Industrial Organization 24 (2006): 733–51.Google Scholar
Bigazzi, Duccio. “Esportazione e investimenti esteri: la Fiat sul mercato mondiale fino al 1940.” In Fiat 1899-1930. Storia e documenti, edited by Progetto Archivio Storico Fiat, 77–168. Milan, Italy: Fabbri editori, 1991.Google Scholar
Bigazzi, Duccio. Mass Production or ‘Organized Craftsmanship'? The Post-War Italian Automobile Industry.” In Americanization and Its Limits, edited by Zeitlin, J. and Herrigel, Gary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 269–97.Google Scholar
Bottiglieri, Bruno. “Alle origini di una grande impresa.” In I primi quindici anni della Fiat, Edited by Storico Fiat, Progetto Archivio, 18–56. Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli, 1987.Google Scholar
Fauri, Francesca. “The Role of Fiat in the Development of the Italian car Industry in the 1950–s.” Business HistoryReview 2, Summer (1996): 167–206.Google Scholar
Guidi, Pietro V. “Trattori Agricoli.” Macchine e motori agricoli 1 (1947): 39–46.Google Scholar
Duruiz, Lale. “Ford in Turkey. From Imports to Partnership.” In Ford. The European History 1903–2003, edited by Bonin, Hubert, Lung, Yannick, and Tolliday, Steven, vol. 2, 485–504. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar
Estape-Triay, Salvador. “Ford in Spain: The First Stage (920-1954). A Multinational Confronts Political Constraints.” In Ford. The European History 1903–2003, edited by Bonin, Hubert, Lung, Yannick, and Tolliday, Steven vol. 2, 427–38. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar
Kogut, Bruce. “National Organizing Principles of Work and the Erstwhile Dominance of the American Multinational Corporation.” Industrial and Corporate Change 1, no. 2 (1992): 285–326.Google Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. “Multinationals.” In Business History Around the World, edited by Amatori, Franco and Jones, Geoffrey, 353–71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Mellinato, Giulio and Toninelli, Pier Angelo. “Marshall allo specchio: l’ERP nel Territorio libero di Trieste.” In Il dilemma dell’integrazione. L’inserimento dell’economia italiana nel sistema occidentale (1945–1957), edited by Cova, Alberto, 353–402. Milan, Italy: Angeli, 2007.Google Scholar
Tolliday, Steven. “The Origins of Ford of Europe: From Multidomestic to Transnational Corporation, 1903–1976.” In Ford. The European History 1903–2003, edited by Bonin, Hubert, Lung, Yannick, and Tolliday, Steven, vol. 1, 153–241. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar
Tolliday, Steven. “The Rise of Ford in Britain: From Sales Agency to Market Leader, 1904–1980.“ In Ford. The European History, 1903–2003, edited by Bonin, Hubert, Lung, Yannick and Tolliday, Steven, vol. 2, 7–57. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar
Tolliday, Steven. “Transplanting the American Model? US Automobile Companies and the Transfer of Technology and Management to Britain, France and Germany.” In Americanization and Its Limits, edited by Zeitlin, J. and Herrigel, Gary, 76–119. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Volpato, Giuseppe. “Ford in Italy. Commercial Breakthroughs without Industrial Bridgeheads.” In Ford. The European History 1903–2003, edited by Bonin, Hubert, Lung, Yannick, and Tolliday, Steven, vol. 2, 451–81. Paris: Plage.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Mira. “Ford Among Multinational Companies.” In Ford. The European History1903–2003, edited by Huber Yannick Lung, Bonin and Tolliday, Steven, vol 1, 71–94. Paris: Plage, 2003.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

ACS, Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Rome).Google Scholar
Fondo Segreteria Particolare del Duce, Carteggio Ordinario, busta 308.Google Scholar
Fondo Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Gabinetto, buste 230, 233.Google Scholar
Fondo Presidenza del Consiglio dei ministri, Gabinetto, Atti 1931–1933, rubrica 2.Google Scholar
AST, Archivio di Stato di Trieste. Fondo Tribunale Commerciale e Marittimo in Trieste.Google Scholar
Fondo Prefettura, Atti generali, class. 5045, n. provv. 71.Google Scholar
Fondo Prefettura, Gabinetto, busta 71.Google Scholar
Fondo Gabinetto, busta 205, R. Prefettura della Provincia di Trieste.Google Scholar
BFRC, Benson Ford Research Center (Dearborn).Google Scholar
Accession 6, Reports series, box 5.Google Scholar
Accession 6, Edsel Ford Papers, Subject Series, Box 15, Foreign Branches, 1929.Google Scholar
Accession 38, C. Sorensen Papers, Italy 1930–1938, boxes 4, 7, 10, 23, 29, 34, 38, 41. Google Scholar
Accession 106, box 27, Branch Trieste Ford Motor Company d’Italia.Google Scholar
Accession 304, Credito Ford d’Italia.Google Scholar
Accession 572, Nevins and Hill Research, Box 17.Google Scholar
Accession 880, Mira Wilkins Papers.Google Scholar
Accession 916, International Sales Statistics.Google Scholar