Giovanni
Agnelli was born in Piedmont, Italy, in
1866. His father was Edoardo Agnelli, the wealthy mayor of Villar
Perosa.
After studying
at the expensive private school, Collegio San Guiuseppe, he spent
time in the military. After experimenting in the development of motorised
tricycles he founded Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) in
1899.
Agnetti
visited the United States several times before
the First World War and after observing the
success of Henry
Ford introduced
mass production to Italy.
Agnetti
took an increasing interest in politics and in 1918 joined the campaign
against the formation of the League of Nations.
Instead he urged the establishment of "a federation of European
states under a central power which governs them." He thought
this would maintain peace in Europe. Agnetti also argued it would
help economic growth: "Only
a federal Europe will be able to give us a more economic realization
of the division of labour, with the elimination of all customs barriers."
In 1920 Agnetti suggested
that Fiat might be transformed into a cooperative managed by the workers.
However, he soon abandoned this idea and gave his support to Benito
Mussolini.
During the Second
World War Agnetti played an important role in mobilizing Italian
industry. Giovanni
Agnelli died in 1945.
(1)
Giovanni
Agnelli, European Federation or League of Nations (1918)
Without
hesitation we believe that, if we really want to make war in Europe
a phenomenon which cannot be repeated, there is only way to do so
and we must be outspoken enough to consider it: a federation of European
states under a central power which governs them. Any other milder
version is but a delusion.
The typical example which
shows how one community, for its very survival, has had to change
from a league of sovereign and independent states to a more complex
form of a union of states ruled by a central power, is given with
unsurpassable clarity by the history of the United States of America.
As is well known, they went through two constitutions: the first,
drawn up by a Congress of 13 states in 1776 and approved by these
same states in February 1781; the second, approved by the national
Convention of September 17th 1787 and which came into force in 1788.
A comparison between the
two documents explains why the first failed, threatening the independence
and freedom itself of the young Union, while the second has created
a Republic, which we now all admire.
In Europe we had reached
this level of absurdity, that every factory that arose in one state
was a thorn in the side for every other state: that while the superb
inventions of steam applied to land and sea transport, of electricity
as motive power, of the telegraph and telephone had by then cancelled
distance and made the world one single large centre and international
market, little men strove with all their might to cancel the immense
benefits of the big discoveries, artificially creating isolated markets
and small production and consumption centres. . .
Only a federal Europe
will be able to give us a more economic realization of the division
of labour, with the elimination of all customs barriers.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
