The Mediobanca “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive makes documents up to 1973 available for consultation - Presentation of new book on Montecatini-Edison merger (1965-71)

All documents from 1946 to 1973 have been digitalized; 44,000 descriptions now available for online consultation

The Mediobanca “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive has made all documents up to 1973 available for consultation, and to mark the occasion has presented a new volume on the Montecatini-Edison merger edited by Giorgio La Malfa and Taddeo Molino Lova entitled La fusione Montecatini – Edison (1965-1971).

The volume consists of previously unpublished minutes of meetings and documents covering the period from when Montedison was set up as a result of the merger between Montecatini and Edison to when Eugenio Cefis became Chairman of the company. The documents allow these events, which various journalists and historians have chronicled over the years, to be reconstructed accurately, shedding new light on the history of the Italian economy and finance in these years.

The volume was presented by the Italian Minister for the Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti, Renato Pagliaro (Chairman of Mediobanca). Giorgio La Malfa (Director of the Mediobanca “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive), Federico Barbiellini Amidei (Bank of Italy, Economic History Division), and Luciano Segreto (Professor of Economic History at the University of Florence). The event was moderated by Ferruccio De Bortoli, President of the Corriere della Sera Foundation.

The Mediobanca “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive has thus digitalized the documents of the Bank’s first twenty-seven years of activity, from 1946 to 1973, making them available for consultation by the public at the following link: https://archiviostorico.mediobanca.com/patrimonio/home.html. All the documentation is accessible online.

“The documents that can now be consulted through the Mediobanca Historical Archive will allow historians to reconstruct one of the most important developments in the history of the Italian economy since World War II with greater accuracy. They document the weakness of private capitalism, which, while keen to stop the public sector from encroaching on the industrial economy, was either unwilling or unable to put up sufficient funds to compensate for the public presence. They also testify to the lack of certain vital managerial abilities required in order to lead a company having to operate and compete in a European and global market without the protection of customs barriers. But public capitalism did not do itself much credit either. Being able to count on public resources had the effect of encouraging private companies to expand their operations, without having to consider the market’s capacity for absorption or problems in terms of their own financial balance. And they highlight the central role played by the Bank of Italy, which proved to be crucial in resolving the affair”, said Giorgio La Malfa, Director of the Mediobanca “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive.

This expansion in the number of documents available for consultation follows the archive opening in 2019, when the documents from 1946, the year in which the Bank was established, until 1966 were made available to the public.

Through the portal, which has been developed in line with the best practices and technologies in the archival sector, a total of 44,000 descriptions and more than 160,000 images can now be accessed.

The analytical document descriptions, allied to the many functionalities offered by the portal, allow the user to carry out searches by several different means: by “Word”, which includes names of people or entities, in both the title and content of the descriptions; by “Holdings”, which allows researchers to explore the world of the Mediobanca Group Legal Entities, an expression of the creativity and innovation that has always been characteristic of Mediobanca in a variety of sectors and segments, such as Italian exports in Africa, consumer credit and investment funds; and by “Collection”, offering immediate access to the minutes of all meetings split by the entities referred to above and the bodies responsible (AGM, BoD, Executive Committee); company documents that offer a privileged viewpoint on the history of Mediobanca and its Group Legal Entities. Finally, it is also possible to search by “Themes”, helping the user to uncover some of the better or less well known aspects of Mediobanca’s history, emphasizing key points for discovering new facts or on which to base new research.

The Montecatini-Edison merger volume is published by Mediobanca and is available free of charge. To obtain a copy write to: archivio.storico@mediobanca.com.

Milan, 17 May 2023