Autarky, market creation and innovation: Snia Viscosa and SAICI, 1933-70

This article reviews the history of Snia Viscosa and its moves into the production of staple fibres and cellulose (as well as allied chemicals) between 1933 and 1970. This is a neglected but crucial episode in the business as well as industrial history of Italy and feeds into a variety of debates, most notably the nature and impact of autarky. This article confirms that autarky stimulated innovation via scale economies rather than a demand-induced effect. It also seems to show that, while redistributing resources also towards giant firms not directly involved in the war effort, autarky led to an overexpansion of technologies which were overtaken by wholly synthetic fibres, in the production of which Snia Viscosa lagged behind. One strength of the article lies in its extensive sources.