Business: A SOCIETY TRANSFORMED BY INDUSTRY

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is not exactly typical of Italy's industrialists, he is certainly foremost among them. Like Italian architects, film makers and sculptors, Italian industrialists have a certain flair. In the board room as on the opera stage, Italy is a nation of soloists; committee rule is rare, and stock ownership has not yet diminished the powers of owners and operators. Their accomplishments are all the more remarkable because the country is poor in resources, save for the ingenuity, inventiveness and individualism of its managers.

There is practically no oil in Italy, yet the state-run E.N.I, monopoly became a world petroleum power under the late Enrico Mattei and his successor, Eugenio Cefis. Mattei bought crude from the Soviets, developed natural-gas resources in the Po Valley, and proudly declared that in building E.N.I., "I broke 8,000 laws." To sidestep Cyclopean bureaucrats—with their time-consuming rules about building permits and their endless paper work—he laid the pipelines at night, while the officials slept.

Italy also has very little coal or iron. When, in 1947, some Italian leaders requested a World Bank loan to build a steel industry, the bankers rather snidely advised them to stick to growing tomatoes. But Industrialist Oscar Sinigaglia, then head of the state-owned Finsider steel complex, landed a big order from Fiat and went on to locate his mills at ports, where ships bring in coal and steel from the cheapest foreign sellers. Finsider is now Europe's biggest steel producer, and last year Italy's output rose from 17.4 million tons to 18.7 million, fifth highest in the world.

In other fields, Olivetti's business machines are known the world over. Pirelli exports tires to more than 100 countries, and has become the Continent's biggest tire company. In publishing, Milan's Fabbri Brothers created a major business by capitalizing on Italy's rising educational levels and its fascination with installment-plan buying. They brought out high-quality serializations of The Divine Comedy, the Bible and other works, now sell more than 1,000,000 copies a week on Italian newsstands. Italian designers are famed for what they do with silks and leather, and their fashions are in high demand. French, Dutch and Belgian appliance firms have been unable to compete with lower-priced Italian refrigerators and washing machines. Italian construction combines outbid competitors for huge jobs in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Says a Milan-based builder: "Being a bit of an underdeveloped country yourself helps you work in other underdeveloped regions."

Europe's Fastest-Moving Economy

Powered by industry, Italy's economic expansion has been the fastest in Europe and second in the world only to Japan's. In the past three years, production of goods and services has risen an average 5% a year, to $72 billion in 1968, and is expected by the European Economic Commission to gain another 6% this year. It is true that Italy is growing fast partly because it has considerable catching up to do; Italy's economy remains one-twelfth as big as the U.S.'s economy and half the size of West Germany's.

Yet few countries have a stronger trading position in world markets. The increasing shipments of Italian steel, refrigerators, TV sets, typewriters, tires—and cars—have lifted exports by