Bernardino Grimaldi | |
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| Born | 15 February 1839 Catanzaro, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |
| Died | 16 March 1897 (aged 58) Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Historical Left |
Bernardino Grimaldi (15 February 1839 - 16 March 1897) was an Italian politician. He was a Minister in several governments. [1]
He was born in Catanzaro (Calabria). His father Luigi Grimaldi was the author of several monographs on the economic state of the province. Like his mother Beatrice Marincola Pistoia, both were descendants of noble families. After earning his law degree, he devoted himself to practice law and teaching constitutional law. [2]
In November 1876, he was elected as a deputy for Catanzaro, which constituency he would represent until his death (XIII-XIX legislatures). He joined the Historical Left. Grimaldi was among the most prominent examples of the new political class that would advocate various reforms as well as state intervention in the economy and in the resolution of regional problems. [2]
Grimaldi served a long career in key ministries. At the age of 40, he became Italian Minister of Finance and Minister of the Treasury in the second government of Benedetto Cairoli (14 July to 25 November 1879). His first mandate was particularly difficult because of the tax on casting grain and cereals that particularly affected the poor, but also was the main economic revenue of the country. Cairoli wanted to abolish the tax to please voters, but Grimaldi opposed saying that abolishing the tax would cause new tax increases. [2]
In 1879, he also supported the proposed construction of 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) of new railway lines across the Kingdom of Italy that would be realized in the early 1880s. [2] He became Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce under Prime Minister Agostino Depretis (30 March 1884 – 29 December 1888). In 1886, he assured the legal recognition of mutual aid societies in Italy, and a law against labour exploitation of women and children as well as recognition of the dangers of working conditions. Grimaldi also improved the working conditions of farmers in southern Italy and passed a law on agricultural credit. [2]
He was Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Francesco Crispi (9 March 1889 and from 9 December 1890 to 6 February 1891, and continued as Minister of Finance and Minister of the Treasury in the first government of Giovanni Giolitti (7 July 1892 to 28 November 1893). [2]
His friendship with the governor of the Banca Romana, Bernardo Tanlongo, and the granting of loans by the bank to some friends, as well as the presentation of a bill – endorsed by Giolitti and then withdrawn – aimed at providing the existing banks the right to issue currency for another six years, were incriminating evidence of his involvement in the Banca Romana scandal. [2] [3] Tanlongo accused Giolitti of receiving money through Grimaldi. [4]
However, the succeeding parliamentary inquiry excluded in November 1893 that Grimaldi had received more money from the Roman Bank than he had admitted to have received as compensation for his professional services. The inquiry also exonerated him from the charge of having collected, directly or indirectly, amounts of money during the parliamentary elections. [2] Nevertheless, his reputation was compromised, even after he left the government, [2] and particularly when the contents of documents submitted by Giolitti to the Chamber of Deputies were made public in December 1894. Notes of the Banca Romana cashier implicated Prime Minister Crispi (with several drafts and a note for 1,050,000 lire), as well as Grimaldi and other ex-Ministers. [5]
Grimaldi was re-elected for the last time in 1895, but had to leave office in 1897, hit by a serious illness rendering him voiceless. He died in Rome on 16 March 1897. [2] [6]
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the prime minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history, and the second-longest serving overall after Benito Mussolini. A prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union, he is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history; due to his dominant position in Italian politics, Giolitti was accused by critics of being an authoritarian leader and a parliamentary dictator.
Giuseppe Zanardelli was an Italian jurist and political figure. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 15 February 1901 to 3 November 1903. An eloquent orator, he was also a Grand Master freemason. Zanardelli, representing the bourgeoisie from Lombardy, personified the classical 19th-century liberalism, committed to suffrage expansion, anticlericalism, civil liberties, free trade and laissez-faire economics. Throughout his long political career, he was among the most ardent advocates of freedom of conscience and divorce.
Francesco Crispi was an Italian patriot and statesman. He was among the main protagonists of the Risorgimento, a close friend and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, and one of the architects of Italian unification in 1860. Crispi served as Prime Minister of Italy for six years, from 1887 to 1891, and again from 1893 to 1896, and was the first prime minister from Southern Italy. Crispi was internationally famous and often mentioned along with world statesmen such as Otto von Bismarck, William Ewart Gladstone, and Lord Salisbury.
Luigi Luzzatti was an Italian financier, political economist, social philosopher, and jurist. He served as the 20th prime minister of Italy between 1910 and 1911.
Agostino Depretis was an Italian statesman and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Italy for several stretches between 1876 and 1887, and was leader of the Historical Left parliamentary group for more than a decade. He is the fourth-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Giolitti and Silvio Berlusconi, and at the time of his death he was the longest-served. Depretis is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history.
Alessandro Fortis was an Italian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Italy from 1905 to 1906.
The Fasci Siciliani, short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori, were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration that arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894. The Fasci gained the support of the poorest and most exploited classes of the island by channeling their frustration and discontent into a coherent programme based on the establishment of new rights. Consisting of a jumble of traditionalist sentiment, religiosity, and socialist consciousness, the movement reached its apex in the summer of 1893, when new conditions were presented to the landowners and mine owners of Sicily concerning the renewal of sharecropping and rental contracts.
Umberto I was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw Italy's expansion into the Horn of Africa, as well as the creation of the Triple Alliance among Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The Banca Romana scandal surfaced in January 1893 in Italy over the bankruptcy of the Banca Romana, one of the six national banks authorised at the time to issue currency. The scandal was the first of many Italian corruption scandals, and discredited both ministers and parliamentarians, in particular those of the Historical Left and was comparable to the Panama Canal Scandal that was shaking France at the time, threatening the constitutional order. The crisis prompted a new banking law, tarnished the prestige of the Prime Ministers Francesco Crispi and Giovanni Giolitti and prompted the collapse of the latter's government in November 1893. The scandal led also to the creation of one central bank, the Bank of Italy.
General elections were held in Italy on 23 November 1890, with a second round of voting on 30 November. The "ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 401 of the 508 seats. As in 1886, the elections were held using small multi-member constituencies with between two and five seats.
General elections were held in Italy on 6 November 1892, with a second round of voting on 13 November. The "ministerial" left-wing bloc emerged as the largest in Parliament, winning 323 of the 508 seats. The electoral system reverted to the pre-1882 method of using single-member constituencies with second round run-offs.
General elections were held in Italy on 26 May 1895, with a second round of voting on 2 June. The "ministerial" left-wing bloc remained the largest in Parliament, winning 334 of the 508 seats.
Events from the year 1893 in Italy.
Events from the year 1892 in Italy.
Events from the year 1894 in Italy.
Events from the year 1895 in Italy.
The Left group, later called Historical Left by historians to distinguish it from the left-wing groups of the 20th century, was a liberal and reformist parliamentary group in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. The members of the Left were also known as Democrats or Ministerials. The Left was the dominant political group in the Kingdom of Italy from the 1870s until its dissolution in the early 1910s.
Events from the year 1901 in Italy.
Events from the year 1889 in Italy
Vincenzo Calenda, baron of Tavani was an judge in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Italy. He was also a senator of the Kingdom of Italy and Minister of Justice in the third and fourth Crispi governments.
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