The Alberto Beneduce Fonds

01 September 2017

Alberto Beneduce was born in Caserta on March 29, 1877. In 1902, he graduated in mathematics from the University of Naples. He joined the State administration in 1904, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce – General Directorate of Statistics, after winning a public examination the previous year.

In 1911, he organised and conducted the economic and demographic census. In the same year, he worked alongside Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce Francesco Saverio Nitti on the design of an insurance monopoly which, after a complex parliamentary procedure, was to materialise with the establishment of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni under Law 4 April 1912. A member of the INA Board of Directors since its foundation, he became managing director in June 1917 following the resignation of managing director Carlo Tocci, and held the position until 1920.

He took part in the First World War I as a volunteer and fighter officer. He conceived and organised the Opera Nazionale Combattenti (ONC) (National Soldiers’ Charity), promoting among other things the devolution of profits from managing war risks in navigation to the assets of the Opera itself.

He was elected member of parliament in 1919, becoming Minister of Labour in 1921. He left political life in 1924, continuing to work with Bonaldo Stringher on both the creation of the Istituto per i Cambi con l’Estero (Institute for Foreign Exchange) and, in 1927, the study and implementation of the measures for stabilising the lira.

Chairman, from the foundation in 1919 to 1940, of Consorzio di Credito per le Opere Pubbliche (Credit Consortium for Public Works), the Istituto di Credito per le Imprese di Pubblica Utilità (ICIPU) (Credit Institute for Public Utilities) and the Istituto per il Credito Navale (Institute for Naval Credits). Chairman of the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) from 1933, the year of its establishment, until 1939. Councilor and later vice president of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel from its foundation in 1939. From 1926 until his death, he was chairman of the Società Italiana per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali (Italian Company for Southern Railways).

He was appointed senator in 1939. He died in Rome on April 26, 1944.

The INA-Assitalia Historical Archive preserves documentation concerning the work of Beneduce as managing director of the Institute.