FASCISM AND THE INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP IN ITALY BEFORE THE MARCH ON ROME.

This article examines the relationship between Benito Mussolini's Fascist movement and Italian business before the March on Rome in 1922. The General Confederation of Italian Industry was launched in April 1919 and became the most influential organization of business groups in the country. Its founder Ettore Conti, a magnate of the electrical industry, explained that the Confederation was designed to act as a showcase in which industry would display its best men with an eye on their future participation in government. It was said that the Confederation lived by the gospel of economic liberalism, while fascism lived largely by its wits.