Business Attitudes Toward Statistical Investigation in Late Nineteenth Century Italy: A Wool Industrialist from Reticence to Influence

The ability of industrial entrepreneurs to influence the outcome of statistical surveys on industry is inquired here exploiting the correspondence between Luigi Bodio and Alessandro Rossi. Bodio (1840-1920) was the head of Italian official statistics from 1871 to 1898 and had also an important role in the Isi. Rossi (1819-1898) was the main Italian wool industrialist of the time, and was directly involved in the promotion of protectionism. The in-depth study of the exchange of letters between the two allows a micro-analysis of the mechanisms by which a businessman could exert his influence on a public official, by which the data provided by the former could take on an official nature, and by which his opinions could affect the approach of the latter as a statistician to the measurement of industry. In time, the industrialist’s attitude changes from a passive resistance to statistical investigation to a more active role of unofficial consultant to the statistician. The growing influence Rossi exerted is interpreted as a case of deep regulatory capture, showing how industrialists could mould in some parts the official data that would be used to take economic-policy decisions. Rossi’s involvement in the construction of official statistics is also discussed in connection with the indirect effects it had in the long period on the statistical representation of Italian industrial economy.