Federico Castelli soutient sa thèse : "Governance, Trade Financing, and Sanctions" - 10h00 sur Teams

Le mercredi 19 novembre 2025 à 10h00, dans la salle Brambilla du campus Ca’ Granda de l’Université de Milan, Federico CASTELLI (LEREPS, UT2J) soutiendra sa thèse de doctorat, intitulée :

"Governance, Trade Financing, and Sanctions : A Multi-Layered Analysis of Banca Commerciale Italiana’s Branches in London and New York, 1912-1941"

La thèse, en co-tutelle internationale entre l’Université de Milan et l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, a été encadrée par Germano MAIFREDA (Università degli Studi di Milano) et Stefano UGOLINI (LEREPS, Sciences Po Toulouse). Elle sera soutenue devant un jury composé de :

Olivier ACCOMINOTTI, professeur d’histoire économique, London School of Economics and Political Science
Daniela FELISINI, professeure d’histoire économique, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata
Juan H. FLORES-ZENDEJAS, professeur d’histoire économique, Université de Genève, Institut Paul Bairoch
Catherine R. SCHENK, professeure d’histoire économique et sociale, University of Oxford, St Hilda’s College

La soutenance sera retransmise sur Teams à travers ce lien.

Résumé de la thèse :
The expansion of Italian banks abroad gathered pace in the early decades of the 20th century, driven by the activities of Banco di Roma, Credito Italiano and, most notably, Banca Commerciale Italiana. While Banco di Roma established a strong presence in the colonies of the Kingdom of Italy—namely Libya and Horn of Africa—as well as in Egypt and the Middle East, particularly Syria and Palestine, it was Credito Italiano and, above all, Banca Commerciale Italiana that experienced successful growth in the major centres of international finance, including London, New York, and Paris. Furthermore, both banks expanded across Continental Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, and into South America, which enabled access to markets with large Italian emigrant communities, notably in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Scholarly literature has examined the banking models employed by Italian institutions abroad, including the “free-standing company” model used in South America, and has explored the administrative and accounting practices of foreign branches and affiliates. However, it has generally overlooked the specific business activities in which these banks specialised, and has yet to undertake detailed, micro-level analyses of the operations and roles of their directors, linking their activities with macro-level phenomena. Scholarly literature on both domestic and international Italian banking has so far predominantly focused on the interwar period, usually up to 1936, when banks were prohibited from simultaneously engaging in both ordinary credit operations and long-term investment activities. Moreover, the consequences of the Great Depression—which ushered in a period marked by declining international economic cooperation, the erection of tariff barriers, the introduction of capital controls, and widespread beggar-my-neighbour policies—have led scholars to overlook the latter half of the 1930s.
This thesis aims to address this gap by examining in depth how the Italian financial sector, in a country that was increasingly regarded internationally as a rogue state, continued to conduct its business up to the eve of the Second World War. It also seeks to highlight the ambiguities characterising AngloItalian economic diplomacy in the aftermath of the 1935 sanctions. In particular, it explores how the British authorities, while taking a leading role in enforcing the sanctions and pursuing a policy of appeasement towards the Nazi–Fascist dictatorships, simultaneously sought to maintain economic relations with Italy even as the Fascist regime moved progressively closer to Germany. This tension between political confrontation and economic pragmatism forms an important backdrop to understanding how Italian financial actors navigated the increasingly hostile international environment of the late 1930s. In particular, it explores how one of Italy’s most important joint-stock banks sought to mend the ruptures caused by Fascist foreign policy decisions.
This thesis draws on a particularly valuable and underexplored source, which—owing to the high frequency and granularity of the data—enables the investigation of a series of open managerial, sociological, and economic questions in the existing literature. By integrating Comit’s micro-level data with meso- and macro-level information from the Bank of Italy, the Bank of England, and the National Archives, the study offers a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective on the period under examination.
At a theoretical level, the thesis engages with three main strands of scholarship. First, through the use of social network analysis, it contributes to the debate on managerial substitutability. Specifically, it intervenes in the literature that seeks to identify proxy variables for measuring substitutability, advancing an analytical approach based on relational chains. This framework distinguishes between institutional knowledge—that is, decision-making processes governed by inter-institutional relations that do not rely on the proactive agency of individual managers—and tacit knowledge, which depends on the relational skills of managers in circulating information and mobilising resources. Second, the thesis addresses the literature that examines how financial shocks can generate short-term disruptions in international trade financing mechanisms. In this sense, the analysis provides a methodological contribution by demonstrating how high-frequency, micro-level data can be mobilised to explore such dynamics. Third, the work engages with research on correspondent banking, contributing to the understanding of how financial institutions may operate across distinct institutional and regulatory frameworks. Moreover, by analysing different types of credit relationships and allocation mechanisms, it adds to ongoing discussions on institutional adaptability and the interaction between organisational practices and regulatory contexts. Fourth, the thesis speaks to broader debates on the reconfiguration of financial systems under external constraints. Specifically, it considers how financial sanctions affected the structure and functioning of the financial system of the target-country, and the strategies adopted to navigate around the financial hubs of sender countries. The analysis adopts a multi-level perspective centred on Comit’s overseas branches in London and New York during the 1930s, situating them within broader political and economic dynamics. The chronological scope deliberately spans from 1912 to 1941 to encompass the full careers of Carlo Lovioz and Guglielmo Reiss Romoli, the respective directors of the London and New York branches, and the organisational transformations they oversaw during this critical period. Lovioz’s trajectory, beginning in 1912, reflects the cosmopolitan banking culture of the “long nineteenth century” and culminated in his appointment as London branch manager in 1934. Romoli, by contrast, embodies the technocratic elite linked to Italy’s apparatus of public economic intervention ; he assumed leadership of the New York branch in 1935 and remained in that position until its closure in December 1941, following Italy’s declaration of war on the United States. Overall, this thesis is structured around three interrelated parts that, while addressing distinct research questions, form a coherent analytical framework connecting managerial, operational, and diplomatic dimensions. Their coherence derives from a shared institutional focus—the London and New York branches of Banca Commerciale Italiana—and from a multi-level approach linking micro, meso, and macro data. At the same time, the study acknowledges several limitations, notably its reliance on a single institutional case, uneven archival evidence, and a primarily Anglo-Italian geographical scope. These constraints, however, do not diminish the broader interpretive value of the findings, which offer new insights into the changing aspects of international banking and financial diplomacy during the interwar period.