White Goods in Italy During a Golden

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xliv:1 (Summer, 2013), 83–110.

WHITE GOODS IN ITALY Ivan Paris White Goods in Italy during a Golden Age (1948–1973) The spread of consumer durable goods is a char- acteristic element of consumption patterns during the golden age of the Western economy. Within this category of products, domestic appliances are of particular signiªcance. The study of how Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 they spread brings new information to the understanding of how Italy completed the transition from an agricultural country to an industrial power. Today, Italy is among the world’s top consumers of such products, the result of a rapid growth that started during the 1950s and continued for the next two decades. In 2003—when the macroregional differences between north, south, and central Italy were minimal—the three consumer durables most popular with Italian families were the refrigerator (99.4 percent), the television (97.4 percent), and the washing machine (97 percent). These market-saturation rates (the number of families that own the goods in question) are even more signiªcant when compared with those detailed in Table 1, which treats the two appliances that are the main focus of this study—refrigerators and washing machines. The increase in market-saturation rate is evident for both products, though their ªgures were well behind those found in countries with higher standards of living, such as the United States, as well as West Germany and France—two countries with socioeconomic conditions similar to those of Italy after World War II that also beneªted from strong economic growth. But not until the mid-1960s did the differences between these two countries and Italy begin to diminish, eventually disappearing at the beginning of the following decade (Table 3).1

Ivan Paris is Assistant Professor of Economic History, University of Brescia. He is the author of Oggetti cuciti: L’abbigliamento pronto in Italia dal primo dopoguerra agli anni Settanta (Milan, 2006); “Fashion as a System: Changes in Demand as the Basis for the Establishment of the Ital- ian Fashion System (1960–1970),” Enterprise & Society, XI (2010), 524–559; “The Italian White Goods Industry and the European Common Market during the Years of the Economic Miracle (1958–63): Quantitative Evidence and Interpretative Hypotheses,” European Review of History, XIX (2012), 575–599. © 2013 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc. 1 For domestic appliances and consumption patterns, see, for example, Victoria De Grazia, Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe (Cambridge, 2005), 84 | IVAN PARIS Italy’s modest consumption of domestic appliances contrasted with its impressive production of them, especially refrigerators and washing machines. In 1963, for example, Italy was the most proliªc producer of refrigerators in Europe and in third position world- wide, just behind the United States and Japan, and exports ac- counted for about half of that production. The domestic-appliance industry represents the most resounding example of how, in just a few years, Italian entrepreneurs managed to reach the top of a mar- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 ket that was already occupied by the largest foreign multinationals. The quantitative and qualitative growth of the domestic-appliance industry was paramount in Italy’s postwar economic boom.2 The focus of this article, however, is not the domestic- appliance sector from the point of view of supply. Our attention is on consumption, about which no studies of the Italian case exist at an aggregate level. In addition to offering a previously unpublished quantitative study, the data collected herein make two other com- plementary contributions—highlighting the factors that inºuenced the progress of Italy’s domestic-appliance consumption and ex- plaining how and why it might have differed by geographical area and social class. In addition to such strictly economic variables as income, other factors (social, cultural, technological, etc.) mattered as well.3

438–457. With regard to the spread of domestic appliances, it is important to focus attention on the family unit and not the individual. Recent studies of consumption start from the as- sumption that the family acts as a genuine productive unit. Products purchased are considered as the input to the domestic processes linked to time, economic resources, and capital goods available to the family. Hence, consumption is not an act that ªnishes with purchase but a more complex process in which goods and services are manipulated to produce other goods and services. See Luca Pellegrini and Luca Zanderighi, Le famiglie come imprese e i consumi in Italia (Milan, 2005), 100–101; Emanuela Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi: Dalla Belle Époque al nuovo millennio (Rome, 2008), 155; Paul Ginsborg, Storia dell’Italia dal dopoguerra a oggi: Società e politica 1943–1988 (Turin, 1989), 283–343. 2 Franco Amatori, “La grande impresa,” in idem and Duccio Bigazzi (eds.), Storia d’Italia. L’industria: imprenditori e imprese (Turin, 1999), 732; Adriana Castagnoli and Scarpellini, Storia degli imprenditori italiani (Turin, 2003), 325; Valeriano Balloni, Origini, sviluppo e maturità dell’ industria degli elettrodomestici (Bologna, 1978), 223–235; Paris, “The Italian White Goods Indus- try and the European Common Market during the Years of the Economic Miracle (1958–63): Quantitative Evidence and Interpretative Hypotheses,” European Review of History, XIX (2012), 575–599. Ofªciel Magazine des Arts Ménagers, “Statistiche comparate della produzione di elettrodomestici nel mondo dal 1959 al 1970,” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna (hereinafter AE), 20, 3 (1972), 30–52. 3 For the supply side, see Balloni, Origini, sviluppo e maturità; Carlo Castellano, L’industria degli elettrodomestici in Italia: Fattori e caratteri dello sviluppo (Turin, 1965), 2–3; Sergio Paba, Reputazione ed efªcienza: crescita e concentrazione nell’industria europea degli elettrodomestici bianchi Table 1 Market-Saturation Rate of Refrigerators and Washing Machines in Italy, 1938–1973 1938 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1966 1970 1973

Refrigerators 0.49% 1.01% 3.67% 8.31% 23.60% 32.00% 55.00% 76.30% 86.00% Washing machines — — 0.18% 1.17% 2.80% 6.25% 8.00% 38.00% 52.60% 63.60% sources Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto dell’Italia: seconda serie, 1956–1965 (Milan, 1966), 1718–1719; Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; idem, “Confronti internazionali,” AE, 6, 7 (1958), 21–35; G. B., “Il mercato delle lavabiancheria in Italia,” ibid., 8 (1960), 61–70; Rosen and Marini, “Il mercato dei frigoriferi in Italia,” ibid., 10 (1960), 33–37; “La diffusione di beni durevoli nel 1965,” ibid., 13, 2 (1966), 51; A. Gattoni, “Tecnologie di massa,” ibid., 15, 1 (1967), 17–18; “Statistica dell”Unipede sull”indice di saturazione in Europa dei principali elettrodomestici,” ibid., 19, 2 (1971), 20; “Gli elettrodomestici in una radioscopia dell”Europa,” ibid., 8 (1971), 33; “La diffusione degli

elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” ibid., 22, 2 (1974), 11–15. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 September 24 on guest by http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf from Downloaded 86 | IVAN PARIS The importance of the period from 1948 to 1973 in this respect is well established. Between the start-up of the Marshall Plan in 1948 and the 1973 oil crisis, the entire Western world beneªted from unprecedented economic growth, sustained by and centered around United States and the strength of the U.S. dollar. Certain countries, such as West Germany, Japan, and Italy, beneªted more than others, greatly reducing the gap between themselves and the most advanced economies. Italy’s economic growth was suf- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 ªciently intense to spur talk of an “economic miracle.” The inau- guration of the Marshall Plan saw Italy already fully entered into the international economic scene, thanks to its previous participation in the institutions deªned by the Bretton Woods agreement. Between 1948 and 1973, Italy entered into a genuine “age of industrialization,” the consequences of which were not solely economic. According to the literature, during this quarter of a century, the social values and problems generated by industrial development involved all of Italian society.4 The reason to study a sub-group of domestic appliances (white

(Bologna, 1992); Paris, “L’industria italiana degli elettrodomestici bianchi e la conquista del mercato nazionale (1953–1958),” Imprese e Storia, XXXVIII (2010), 79–120. The need to study variables not strictly economic arises from the fact that most of the works that dealt with this subject more or less directly focused on the rapid growth in Italian market-saturation rates as much as domestic differences, connecting them to disposable income (see, for example, Fabio Lavista, Sessant’anni di associazionismo imprenditoriale: ANIE e la trasformazione dell’Italia industriale, [Milan, 2007], 80–81). Economic variables certainly played an important role, but as studies of other countries have shown, the social, cultural, and technological context cannot be overlooked. See, for example, Sue Bowden and Avner Offer, “The Technological Revo- lution That Never Was: Gender, Class, and the Diffusion of Household Appliances in Inter- war England,” in De Grazia and Ellen Furlough (eds.), The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Prospective (Berkeley, 1996), 244–274. 4 After World War II, the new ruling class used Italy’s joining the World Bank and the In- ternational Monetary Fund as a tool to obtain full international legitimacy for the electoral results in 1946 and 1948. For this theme, see Barbagallo, “La formazione dell’Italia demo- cratica,” in Francesco Barbagallo et al. (eds.), Storia dell’Italia repubblicana. I. La costruzione della democrazia: dalla caduta del fascismo agli anni Cinquanta (Turin, 1994), 3–128; Guido Formigoni, La Democrazia Cristiana e l’alleanza occidentale, 1943–1953 (Bologna, 1996). For an overview on the Golden Age, see Stephen A. Marglin, “Lessons of the Golden Age: An Overview,” in Marglin and Juliet B. Schor (eds.), The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Ex- perience (Oxford, 1990), 1–39; for Italy, see Nicola Rossi and Gianni Toniolo, “Italy,” in Nicholas Crafts and Gianni Toniolo (eds.), Economic Growth in Europe since 1945 (New York, 1996), 427–454; Patrizia Battilani and Francesca Fauri, Mezzo secolo di economia italiana, 1945– 2008 (Bologna, 2008). Italian historians state that the years of most vigorous economic growth were from 1958 to 1963. See, for example, Antonio Cardini, “La ªne dell’Italia rurale e il miracolo economico,” in idem (ed.), Il miracolo economico italiano, 1958–1963 (Bologna, 2006), 7–25; Guido Crainz, Storia del miracolo italiano (Rome, 2005). WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 87 goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, freezers, cookers, etc.) is threefold. First, the production techniques of these appliances are similar. Second, they are all “time saving,” as opposed to “time spending” devices (such as televisions, radios, etc.), which are used primarily to entertain. This distinction is important for the purposes of this study since it relates to the timing and method by which these goods spread. Third, interest in these electrical appliances is also connected to the transformation of the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 domestic environment, particularly the kitchen, where the far- reaching process of household rationalization and mechanization began.5 Within white goods, this article focuses on refrigerators and washing machines. During the ªrst twenty years of the postwar period, refrigerators and washing machines comprised the mainstay of Italy’s domestic-appliance production and consumption. Dish- washers, freezers, and air conditioners became relevant only during the second half of the 1960s. Furthermore, refrigerators were already technologically mature by the mid-1950s, and washing machines matured with the introduction of automatic models during the second half of the decade. This situation did not apply to dishwashers. Cooking appliances are excluded because, unlike food conservation and clothes washing, cooking requires the full attention of a housekeeper. Refrigerators and washing machines clearly had developmental trajectories that distinguished them from other domestic appliances and consumer durables.6 Archival sources for the matter at hand are almost completely lacking, as they happen to be for all of the most important Italian industries. Starting in the 1970s, the Italian domestic-appliance industry underwent an intense period of merger and bankruptcy,

5 Gary S. Becker, “A Theory of the Allocation of Time,” Economic Journal, LXXV (1965), 493–517; Bowden and Offer, “Household Appliance and the Use of Time: The United States and Britain since the 1920s,” Economic History Review, XLVII (1994), 725–748. For the subject of the kitchen, see Joy Parr (ed.), “Kitchen Technologies,” Technology and Culture, XLIII (Special Issue, 2002), 657–754. 6 In 1965, for example, Italy’s production of dishwashers was 55,000 units; in 1966, the market-saturation rate was 2%. In the same year, the United States produced 1.2 million dishwashers, and the market saturation rate was 16%. Italy was not unlike other principal Euro- pean states. At the top was West Germany, which, in 1965, produced 104,000 dishwashers, and in 1966 had a market saturation rate of 16%. See Ofªciel Magazine des Arts Ménagers, “Statistiche comparate”; Gattoni, “Tecnologie di massa,” AE, 15, 1 (1967), 17–18. The ex- clusion of cooking appliances is valid at least until the spread of the microwave oven (1970s), which constituted a change in cooking methods and foods. 88 | IVAN PARIS leading to a substantial loss of documentation. Most of the data herein derive from rare reports produced by market-research companies and various other publications of the period—previously untapped for the study of consumption. They contain sector analyses and interviews with technicians, producers, managers, et al. The risk of partiality is avoided because this published material in- cludes the research of specialist trade publications as well as studies performed by public and private statistical institutions, both Italian Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 and foreign. These sources nurtured in-depth examinations of all subjects connected to the world of domestic appliances. the spread of domestic appliances at the end of world war ii Unfortunately, there are no studies about the spread of domestic appliances between the two world wars, mainly because the Italian domestic-appliance industry was in its infancy at the time. The ªrst available study, Jacoboni’s L’industria meccanica italiana (1949), deals with the entire mechanical industry, not just domestic appliances. Although this work contains no data explic- itly about consumption, pertinent information can be extracted from it nonetheless.7 Jacoboni’s description of electrical energy as a “valid help with daily domestic problems such as the cooking of food and the production of hot water for hygienic and sanitary use, and for the heat- ing of homes,” provides a strong clue to which appliances were most common. Scarpellini’s recent examination of Italian consumption, which identiªed electric heaters, irons, and boilers as the time-saving domestic appliances most commonly found in Italian homes between the wars, underscores it. Hardly any washing machines or refrigerators were in Italian homes. In 1938, the market saturation for washing machines was practically zero; for refrigerators, it was 0.49 percent. The purchase price and, according to Luzzatto Fegiz, the high cost of electricity restricted the use of

7 Attilio Jacoboni, L’industria meccanica italiana (Rome, 1949). Jacoboni, a chemist who worked for Agip and Eni, became general director of efim—a state holding agency established to manage the Mechanical Industry Finance Fund (fim)—in 1966 and its president from 1975 to 1978. The fim was established in 1947 to ªnance the postwar re-conversion of the mechanical industry. For the history of fim, see Francesca Fauri, “La strada scabrosa del rinnovamento economico delle aziende: la missione impossibile del FIM,” Imprese e Storia, XXXVI (2007), 192–217; Andrea M. Locatelli, “La meccanica agevolata: Dal controllo corporativo al Fondo industria meccanica (1929–1957),” in Alberto Cova and Gianpiero Fumi (eds.), L’intervento dello Stato nell’economia italiana: Continuità e cambiamenti, 1922–1956 (Milan, 2011), 387–416. WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 89 these products to families with medium to high incomes (in 1948, 97 percent of nonrural Italian families had electrical energy in their homes). Again in 1951, more than 19 percent of those with high incomes who participated in a survey owned an electric heater; only 0.6 percent of those with low incomes did (the investigation subdivided its sample into ªve social classes). Ownership of these new technologies was a status symbol. Technological factors con- cerning the construction of homes were also important. For exam- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 ple, an article published in a 1929 issue of Domus, a prestigious architecture magazine, further demonstrated the rarity of these lux- uries by highlighting the scant attention that architects paid to the electrical systems that were indispensable for domestic appliances.8 The results of Scarpellini’s analysis of Italian consumption are conªrmed by a comparison of the domestic consumption of electrical energy at the time, as measured by metered homes, with the typical consumption of individual domestic appliances. In 1938, the number of domestic electrical meters was estimated to be slightly fewer than 3.8 million—in a total population of approximately 35 million (since more than one family could be connected to the same meter, the number of domestic meters was not equal to the number of consuming families). The total annual consumption of electricity for domestic use (including illumination) was 461 million kwh (3.54 percent of total consumption of electricity); the total per domestic unit was 122 kwh. The annual electrical consumption of such appliances as refrigerators and boilers was far beyond these ªgures. The average consumption of a refrigerator of average capacity (80 liters) was 1,155 kwh per year, and that of a small boiler (15 liter capacity with an average daily use of 20 liters) was 660 kwh. Obviously, the electrical consumption of small appliances was lower; a light iron, for example, used about 4 kwh per year for eight hours per month.9 8 Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi, 113–120; G. S., “Sugli impianti elettrici nelle case,” Domus, 2, 3 (1929), 43, 53; Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” AE, 5, 12 (1957), 33; Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto dell’Italia: seconda serie, 1956–1965 (Milan, 1966), 6, 13. In 1946, Luzzatto Fegiz founded Doxa, which specialized in opinion polls, market research, and statistical analyses and had a monopoly in the ªeld of market research in Italy until the 1960s. See also Giacomo Polin, La casa elettrica di Figini e Pollini, 1930 (Rome, 1982). 9 The investigation into domestic consumption of electrical energy was performed by Union Internationale des Producteurs et Distribucteurs d’Energie Electrique. Data regarding the consumption of individual appliances are taken from estimates at the start of the 1950s. Given the slow pace of technological evolution, these estimates may also be considered 90 | IVAN PARIS These data further demonstrate how rare these electrical appliances were, as well as how demanding was their combined use. Nevertheless, important studies show that the period between the two world wars witnessed the grounding of the cultural basis for the mass employment of household technology in ways that would come to fruition after World War II. As Nazism in Germany fa- vored the spread of domestic appliances as part of consumption- friendly economic policy, so did Fascism in Italy. In the 1930s, the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 national-electricity companies began to launch promotional cam- paigns aimed at the domestic market (the aim was to differentiate their production). At the same time, the fascist regime fostered a new image for the “modern woman,” a wife and mother destined to play a decisive role in the interface between the family and the new world of consumer goods.10 According to Jacoboni, at the end of World War II, the Italian domestic-appliance industry, despite its youth, had a production capacity estimated to be much higher than that required to satisfy domestic demand. The notion that the Italian market was limited, with little potential, was still common at the beginning of the ªfties. In 1955, the Battelle Institute, an important American research organization involved in the study of technological progress, concluded that a “wide and interesting” market would be difªcult to form in Italy. Siemens, a German company, decided to cancel its plans for a large refrigerator factory in Italy as a result of research that it had commissioned. In 1952, a report by General Motors made mention of Italian consumers’ low level of awareness about the necessity for the domestic refrigerator. The General Confeder- ation of Italian Industry, however, had a different view. Its detailed study of the Italian industry of 1953 found the Italian market to be signiªcant for the years immediately before World War II. See Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (1),” AE, 5, 11 (1957), 33–39; “Consumo degli apparecchi elettrodomestici,” ibid., 4, 1 (1956), 45. 10 Hartmut Berghoff, “Enticement and Deprivation: The Regulation of Consumption in Pre-war Nazi Germany,” in Martin Daunton and Matthew Hilton (eds.), The Politics of Con- sumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America (New York, 2001), 165–184; Stefania Barca, “Modello americano e diffusione dei consumi elettrodomestici in Italia negli anni Trenta,” Studi Storici, XXXVIII (1997), 505–538; Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi, 98–111; De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922–1945 (Berkeley, 1992); Maria Chiara Liguori, “Donne e consumi nell’Italia degli anni cinquanta,” Italia Contemporanea, 205 (1996), 665–689. For the history of consumption in Germany, see also Heinz Gerhard Haupt, “Pour une historie de la consommation en Allemagne au XXe siècle,” Le Mouvement Social, CCVI (2004), 3–16. WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 91 growing quickly, particularly that of domestic appliances. Which of these contradictory views was correct?11 the spread of refrigerators and washing machines during the golden age The years between 1948 and 1973 were characterized by increasing incomes (national and per capita) and the strengthening of international relations on more than a strictly commercial basis. The divide between Western Europe and the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 United States diminished; West Germany and Italy experienced unprecedented growth rates, as did countries outside Europe, no- tably Japan. The factors behind this process in Italy were varied and numerous—internal, external, contingent, and structural. Some of the factors that proved to be decisive are difªcult to quantify— for example, the strength of Italy’s resolve to erase the tragic events of World War II. Among the more palpable elements that were fundamental to Italy’s economic recovery were the aid that it received from the European Recovery Program (erp), its entry into the international economy and the process of European integration, and its economic policies—a mix of monetarism and an emphasis on sustained demand.12 Together, these factors, along with certain social and cultural trends, created quantitative and qualitative changes in consumption patterns. Domestic appliances and, in particular, white goods became symbols of success and instruments for the identiªcation of

11 Tersilia Faravelli Giacobone et al., Dalla casa elettrica alla casa elettronica: storia e signiªcati degli elettrodomestici (Milan, 1989), 52; Paba, Reputazione ed efªcienza, 26; Confederazione Gen- erale dell’Industria Italiana, L’industria italiana alla metà del secolo XX (Rome, 1953), 420–421. 12 For a more general analysis of convergence, see Stephen N. Broadberry, “Convergence: What the Historical Record Shows,” in Bart Van Ark and Nicholas F. R. Crafts (eds.), Quan- titative Aspects of Post-war European Economic Growth (New York, 1996), 327–346. Among the numerous studies that offer a comparative analysis of European countries, see Crafts and Gianni Toniolo, Economic Growth in Europe since 1945 (New York, 1996). For an international comparison of gdp levels and per capita gdp levels, see Angus Maddison, “Historical Statistics of the World Economy, 1–2006 AD (last update March 2009),” Tables 2 and 3, at http:// www.ggdc.net/maddison, accessed June 3, 2009; idem, “The Nature and Functioning of Eu- ropean Capitalism: A Historical and Comparative Prospective,” 32–33, at http://www.ggdc .net/maddison, accessed June 3, 2009. For the participation of Italy in the process of European economic integration, see Francesca Fauri, Il Piano Marshall e l’Italia (Bologna, 2010); idem, L’Italia e l’integrazione economica europea, 1947–2000 (Bologna, 2001). For a recent interpretation of the economic policies adopted in Italy following World War II, see Giacomo Nardozzi, Miracolo e declino: l’Italia tra concorrenza e protezione (Rome, 2004). For a comparative analysis, see Andrew Graham and Antony Seldon (eds.), Government and Economies in the Postwar World: Economic Policies and Comparative Performance, 1945–85 (London, 1990). 92 | IVAN PARIS social classes, which, until then, had been based upon other charac- teristics. According to De Grazia, domestic appliances represented a genuine “social invention.” Hence, their study helps to under- stand the profound changes taking place in society at the time.13 Table 2 shows the market-saturation rates for the main time- saving and time-spending appliances in Italy between 1938 and 1975. Unlike those of West Germany and France, Italy’s rates increased extremely slowly between 1938 and 1955 (with the excep- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 tion of the radio’s rate). In 1953, the market-saturation rate for refrigerators in Italy was 3.67 percent, compared to 8 percent in West Germany and 7.3 percent in France. The gap in consumption of washing machines was even higher—1.17 percent in Italy, 9 percent in West Germany, and 8.1 percent in France.14 An analysis of the expenditure for domestic appliances is infor- mative. Between 1950 and 1955 Italy occupied a marginal position both in absolute and relative terms. In 1955, Italians spent an annual sum of $2.46 per head, equal to 0.80 percent of total spending on private consumption ($307.02); the French spent $21.50, equal to 1.28 percent of their total spending on private consumption ($1,679.24). Only the British spent less—$1.85—but this ªgure equaled 1.03 percent of their total spending on private consumption ($179.54). Notwithstanding a lack of data regarding West Ger- many, Germans spent an annual sum of $438.30 per head on private consumption.15 13 De Grazia, Irresistible Empire, 375. Consumption patterns indicate how individuals per- ceive and position themselves in society. For example, see Jean Baudrillard, La société de consommation (Paris, 1970); Pierre Bourdieu, La distinction (Paris, 1979); Michel De Certeau, L’invention du quotidien (Paris, 1990); Mary Douglas and Baron Isherwood, The World of Goods (New York, 1979). For the Italian case, see Francesco Alberoni, Consumi e società (Bologna, 1964); Scarpellini, “People of Plenty: consumi e consumismo come fattori di identità nella società italiana,” in Paolo Capuzzo (ed.), Genere, generazione e consumi: l’Italia degli anni Sessanta (Rome, 2003), 53–61. See also Daniel Roche, Histoire des coses banales: naissance de la consommation dans les societes traditionelles, 17–19 siecle (Paris, 1997). 14 The Italian market-saturation rates were even lower if various combinations of appliances are considered. In 1958, for example, only 1.4 % of families simultaneously possessed a television, a refrigerator, and a washing machine; 84 % of families had none of these appliances. Ten years later, the situation had improved, but not greatly. The percentage of families that possessed all three of the appliances was still low (11.6 %); the proportion of families with none had dropped to 20.8 %. Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto, 1687; Ente Nazionale Energia Elettrica (enel), “Indagine sull’utenza domestica,” AE, 18, 11 (1970), 40. 15 Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” ibid., 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; idem, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Francia,” ibid., 6, 1 (1958), 21– 30.; idem, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Germania Occidentale,” ibid., 2 (1958), 20–29; idem, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Gran Bretagna,” ibid., WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 93 This situation changed after 1955 and into the 1960s, when all of the important appliances gained popularity. From 1965 to 1975, Italian market-saturation rates reached those of the most advanced Western countries (see Figure 1), West Germany and France in- cluded (see Table 3). The data show that the period of greatest growth in the consumption of refrigerators and washing machines in Italy started after 1962. Washing machines, in particular, underwent a huge explosion in popularity during the ªrst half of the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 1960s (Figure 2). The reasons for the delay in Italy’s adoption of domestic appliances until the 1960s were complex. Economic circumstances were undoubtedly relevant. In 1962/63, Italians received a massive increase in wages, thereby altering the connection between income and proªt; pressure on the labor market, characterized by unem- ployment at a record low, inevitably led to an increase in nominal wages. To illustrate the nature of the change, between 1962 and 1963 alone, in combination with the renewal of working contracts, the increase in nominal wages in the manufacturing industry reached 17 percent. As already highlighted, however, Italian per capita income was increasing steadily even before 1962/63. Hence, purely economic variables can only partly explain the delayed adoption of domestic appliances throughout Italy. Social, cultural, and technological variables slowed their spread in areas where economic conditions would otherwise have allowed their purchase.16 In 1953, the monthly magazine Civiltà delle Macchine interviewed 200 families representing different economic proªles. De- spite the limited size of its sample, the study revealed that the high average prices of white goods were an obstacle to their spread, despite the fact that, in some cases (refrigerators, for one), prices were already decreasing. Data from the Bank of Italy demonstrate that between 1950 and 1966, the average price per liter capacity of refrigerators fell from 1,880 to 300 Italian lire. The price of washing machines did not itself fall signiªcantly, however, until the 1960s (between 1957 and 1966 the average price of washing machines dropped from 138,000 to 60,000 Italian lire). The most important

3 (1958), 33–45. The data are from the numerous statistical studies carried out in various Eu- ropean states by public and private research institutes; they were converted into U.S. dollars by the author. 16 Nardozzi, Miracolo e declino, 26–27. Table 2 Market-Saturation Rate for the Most Common Time-Saving and Time-Spending Appliances in Italy, 1938–1975 time saving time spending washing cookers vacuum floor refrigerators machines and hobs boilers cleaners polishers televisions radios

1938 0.49% / 3.30% 1.47% 1.23% 1.11% / 8.87% 1950 1.01% 0.18% 6.09% 2.37% 1.59% 1.35% / 27.25% 1955 6.12% 2.10% 6.64% 5.99% 3.88% 2.30% 1.95% 48.34% 1962 32.00% 8.00% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1965a 50.00% 20.00% 13.67% 17.00% 8.00% 13.00% 45.00% 73.00% a 1970 76.30% 52.60% N/A N/A 25.50%c 75.80% N/A 1975 94.30% 76.20% 93.30% 64.50% 29.00%b 44.20% 91.70% 81.20% a Data refer to the ªrst half of the year. b Data refer to 1973. c Data combine vaccuum cleaners and ºoor polishers. sources Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; Ente Nazionale Energia Elettrica (enel), “Indagine sull’utenza domestica,” ibid., 18, 11 (1970), 40; “La diffusione degli elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” ibid., 22, 2 (1974), 11–15; Banca d’Italia, “Risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel 1968,” Estratto del bollettino statistico della Banca d’Italia, XXV (1970), 26–33; idem, “Reddito, risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane negli anni 1970 e 1971,” ibid., XXVIII (1973),

545–552; idem, “Reddito, risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel 1975,” ibid., XXXII (1977), 44–50. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 September 24 on guest by http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf from Downloaded WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 95 Fig. 1 Market Saturation Rate for Refrigerators and Washing Ma- chines in Western European Countries, the United States, and Japan, 1973 (%) Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021

source “La diffusione degli elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 22, 2 (1974), 11–15. reason for the difference in price reduction between these appliances was that, by the mid-1950s, refrigerators had already reached a degree of technological maturity, whereas the washing machine was still an evolving product. Its prices fell only when automatic models gradually became more popular. The ªrst successful, wholly Italian automatic washing machine was the Candy Auto- matic, launched in 1958 at the highly competitive price of 195,000 Italian lire. The American Bendix automatic machine (the B115 model) cost 269,000 lire, and those from the German company Constructa, one of the world’s best manufacturers, cost as much as 350,000 Italian lire (identical technology but with a smaller capacity).17

17 “La produzione in serie fonte di benessere,” AE, 20, 7 (1972), 21–22; “Lavatrici: caratteristiche tecniche e prezzi indicativi (2),” ibid., 6, 10 (1958), 67–75; Ugo De Franciscis, “La massaia automatica: l’uso delle macchine domestiche a Roma come risulta da un’inchiesta giornalistica,” Civiltà delle Macchine, I (1953), 60–61. This magazine worked not only with the best journalists and most advanced technicians but also scientists, philosophers, engineers, and artists. Financed by Finmeccanica (a high-tech industrial group in Italy) and published also in West Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, it had a strong interest in new 96 | IVAN PARIS Fig. 2 Market Saturation Rate for Washing Machines in Italy, West Germany, and France, 1953–1973 (%) Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021

sources Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto dell’Italia: seconda serie, 1956–1965 (Mi- lan, 1966), 1718–1719; Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; idem, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Francia,” ibid., 6, 1 (1958), 21–30; idem, “Confronti internazionali,” AE, 6, 7 (1958), 21–35; Franco Beretta, “Andamento del mercato degli elettrodomestici nella Germania Federale,” ibid., 8, 3 (1960), 43–49; G. B., “Il mercato delle lavabiancheria in Italia,” ibid., 8 (1960), 61–70; “Tassi di equipaggiamento elettrodomestico in Francia,” ibid., 13, 3 (1965), 66; “Tassi di saturazione degli elettrodomestici in Germania,” ibid., 14, 8 (1966), 51; “Una statistica del benessere in Germania,” ibid., 10 (1966), 71; “La diffusione di beni durevoli nel 1965,” ibid. 13, 2 (1966), 51; A. Gattoni, “Tecnologie di massa,” ibid., 15, 1 (1967), 17–18; “Indagine sulla Repubblica Federale Tedesca,” ibid., 16, 10 (1968), 17–20; “Statistica dell”Unipede sull’indice di saturazione in Europa dei principali elettrodomestici,” ibid., 19, 2 (1971), 20; “Gli elettrodomestici in una radioscopia dell”Europa,” ibid., 8 (1971), 33; “La diffusione degli elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” ibid., 22, 2 (1974), 11–15

The growing market-saturation rates shown in Table 1 clearly show the result of the constantly increasing per capita incomes and the parallel reduction in retail prices. Nevertheless, the Italian market-saturation rate was lower than those of the most important European countries (above all, for the washing machine). This situ- technological frontiers. See Emanuele Felice, “State Ownership and International Competi- tiveness: The Italian Finmeccanica from Alfa Romeo to Aerospace and Defence, 1947–2007,” Enterprise & Society, III (2010), 594–633; Giuseppe Lupo, L’utopia del moderno in “Civiltà delle Machine,” 1953–1958, in Giorgio Bigatti and Carlo Vinti (eds.), Comunicare l’impresa: Cultura e strategie dell’immagine nell’industria italiana, 1945–1970 (Milan, 2010), 155–165; Vanni Schei- willer (ed.), Civiltà delle Macchine: Antologia di una rivista, 1953–1957 (Milan, 1989). WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 97 Table 3 Market-Saturation Rate for Refrigerators and Washing Machines in Italy, West Germany, and France, 1953–1973 refrigerators 1953 1956 1959 1962 1966 1969a 1973

Italy 3.67% 8.31% 23.60% 32.00% 55.00% 71.00% 86.00% West Germany 8.00% 13.00% 29.00% 52.00% 65.00% 87.00% 88.00% France 7.30% 13.00% 26.00%b 37.00% 55.00% 80.00% 85.00%

washing Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 machines 1953 1956 1959 1962 1966 1969a 1973

Italy 1.17% 2.80% 6.25% 8.00% 38.00% 47.00% 63.00% West Germany 9.00% 16.00% 26.00% 34.00% 48.00% 66.00% 77.00% France 8.10% 14.20% 24.50%b 30.50% 42.00% 60.00% 64.00% a Data refer to the beginning of the year. b Data refer to 1960. sources Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto dell’Italia: seconda serie, 1956–1965 (Mi- lan, 1966), 1718–1719; Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; idem, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Francia,” ibid., 6, 1 (1958), 21–30; idem, “Confronti internazionali,” AE, 6, 7 (1958), 21–35; Franco Beretta, “Andamento del mercato degli elettrodomestici nella Germania Federale,” ibid., 8, 3 (1960), 43–49; G. B., “Il mercato delle lavabiancheria in Italia,” ibid., 8 (1960), 61–70; Rosen and Marini, “Il mercato dei frigoriferi in Italia,” ibid., 10 (1960), 33–37; “Tassi di equipaggiamento elettrodomestico in Francia,” ibid., 13, 3 (1965), 66; “Tassi di saturazione degli elettrodomestici in Germania,” ibid., 14, 8 (1966), 51; “Una statistica del benessere in Germania,” ibid., 10 (1966), 71; “La diffusione di beni durevoli nel 1965,” ibid. 13, 2 (1966), 51; A. Gattoni, “Tecnologie di massa,” ibid., 15, 1 (1967), 17–18; idem, “Gli scambi di apparecchi elettrodomestici fra i Paesi del MEC nel 1963,” ibid., 12, 10 (1964), 41–49; “Indagine sulla Repubblica Federale Tedesca,” ibid., 16, 10 (1968), 17–20; “Statistica dell”Unipede sull”indice di saturazione in Europa dei principali elettrodomestici,” ibid., 19, 2 (1971), 20; “Gli elettrodomestici in una radioscopia dell”Europa,” ibid., 8 (1971), 33; “La diffusione degli elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” ibid., 22, 2 (1974), 11–15. ation was aggravated by the fact that the average price of white goods in Italy was relatively low. In 1956, for example, a compres- sor refrigerator with a capacity of 220 liters cost $288.00 in Italy, much less than the $522.83 in France, the $227.38 in Germany, and the $337.11 in Britain. A washing machine with a capacity of 3 kg and agitator technology cost $136.00 in Italy, again substantially less than the $215.90 in France, the $160.00 in Germany, and the $146.64 in Britain. Low per capita income certainly had something to do with the lagging adoption of these appliances in Italy. Never- theless, given that Italy’s general retail prices were lower than those of other European countries, the low saturation rates also had to be 98 | IVAN PARIS inºuenced by noneconomic factors. Despite the scarcity of available sources, this is a key point of our analysis.18 The research undertaken by Civiltà delle Macchine reveals how the limited spread of white goods was strongly inºuenced by noneconomic factors. The middle classes still relied on the services of a domestic staff, although they had the means to afford the new electrical devices. A survey taken by Doxa in 1950 highlighted the extent to which domestic service was entrenched in the household. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 From a sample of 5 million women living in towns and cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (hence, none in rural areas), only 24 percent claimed to do their own housework; 39 percent had help from family; and 36 percent employed maids and servants. Moreover, half of those employed as domestic help worked full- time; the rest worked on an hourly basis. Of the full-time domestic staff, 41 percent had been employed for less than a year (apparently, the phenomenon was still evolving). This situation inhibited the purchase of white goods, even though the advantages that they offered were well known.19 According to Civiltà delle Macchine, another noneconomic obstacle was the scarcity of kitchens constructed in a “rational man- ner.” Most kitchens simply did not have space to install the appliances, especially the larger ones, such as refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers. Nor should the scarcity of electricity be overlooked. Although, according to Luzzatto Fegiz, in 1953, 99 percent of Italian homes had electricity (67 percent of them used it exclusively for electric lights), his statistic applied to conurbations with more than 20,000 inhabitants; in all likelihood, the number of houses and apartments with electricity was considerably fewer. Ac- cording to a study by the specialist magazine Elettrodomus in 1958, the proportion of families not connected to the electrical grid was approximately 10 percent.20 18 Union pour l’étude du marché de l’électricité, Comparaison des prix des appareils élecro- ménagers dans quelques pays d’Europe (Paris, 1957); Maddison, “Historical Statistics,” Table 3. 19 Doxa, “Inchiesta sul personale domestico,” Bollettino della Doxa, 4, 17–18 (1950), 225– 229. For a comparison with other European countries, see Raffaella Sarti, “Da serva a operaia? Trasformazioni di lungo periodo del servizio domestico in Europa,” Polis, 19, 1 (2005), 91– 120. See also Asher Colombo, “Il mito del lavoro domestico: struttura e cambiamento in Italia (1970–2003),” ibid., 3 (2005), 435–464. 20 Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto, 39–40; “Indagine di settore sui frigoriferi: il mercato degli elettrodomestici in Italia,” Elettrodomus, 1, 1 (1959), 8–10; Maria Cacioppo, “Condi- zione di vita famigliare negli anni cinquanta,” Memoria, III (1982), 83–90. We have no data relating to plumbing systems. Yet, in 1953, 31% of homes were constructed before 1919; in WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 99 Another noneconomic impediment to the spread of these goods was their inadequacy to the needs of Italian consumers. The commonly available “American type” refrigerator, for example, was too large, more suitable for weekly than for daily restocking, and it lacked an internal compartment with a lower temperature for the preservation of fresh vegetables, which constituted a major part of the Italian-family diet. In 1954, more than 80 brands of refrigerators were available on the Italian market (40 of them Italian), Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 offering 300 models (fewer than 100 of them Italian). Almost one- third of these models had capacities that exceeded 230 liters, well beyond the needs, as well as the means, of most Italian families. The trend started to change toward the end of the 1950s and the start of the 1960s, thanks to the gradual increase in the number of Italian manufacturers. Compared to foreign (primarily American) producers, local manufacturers were more attentive to the needs of the average Italian consumer. Their refrigerators were smaller, and they had compartments organized for daily use. They also con- sumed less electricity and were less expensive. During the ªrst year of the European Common Market (1958–1963), half of the im- ported models still had capacities greater than 230 liters, whereas only 10 percent of the Italian models did.21 Dishwashers were not successful on the market for functional reasons. Besides being too big for the average Italian family, dishwashers were considered to be both impractical and unreliable. Unlike refrigerators and washing machines, they were still in the design phase. Furthermore, some Italian consumers still had no faith in the ability of such devices to take the place of manual work. The cost of employing someone to wash delicate and often valu- able articles, such as crockery, which did not require much time or effort, was by no means prohibitive. The families interviewed in Civiltà delle Macchine complained about the high cost, the large size, and the excessive load capacity of washing machines. Nevertheless, given the effort and cost of

1960, still only about 25% of homes had bathrooms. For the spread of electrical energy in Italy following the World War II, see Gianfranco Petrillo, “Il trionfo dell’elettricità nella vita civile,” in Valerio Castronovo (ed.), Storia dell’industria elettrica in Italia. IV. Dal dopoguerra alla nazionalizzazione, 1945–1962 (Bari, 1994), 453–480. 21 The data enabling this appraisal derive from the monthly specialist trade publication Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, which published a list of models and brands available on the Italian market once every year. 100 | IVAN PARIS washing laundry by hand, the purchase of a washing machine represented a justiªable economic investment, as was becoming ap- parent, at least in some circles, during the 1950s. In a study published in 1955, the magazine Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna (AE) identiªed the washing machine as a “money saving appliance,” supporting its point with the example of a typical family of four who washed an average of about 11kg of laundry per week. Since the cost of each kilo of laundry was 100 Italian lire, the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 annual cost was greater than 57,000 Italian lire (a little more than $90). The cost of a washing machine performing the same task was around 10,000 Italian lire per year ($16), which represented a con- siderable savings. Since the price of a Candy model with a load capacity of 4 kg and spin function was 130,000 Italian lire (approximately $208) in 1955, it could be amortized in less than three years. Nonetheless, as the tables show, the refrigerator was often the ªrst appliance to enter the middle-class household. The washing machine, although designed to alleviate one of the most strenuous domestic chores, often had to follow the expensive television, which was thought to appeal to housewives more.22 The case of the washing machine seems to indicate that the spread of domestic appliances was impeded, in part, by the low value assigned to the work of housewives. From a purely quantitative point of view, the general process of the diffusion of white goods in Italy was not unlike that in other European countries and the United States (Japan was the only prominent exception to the slow adoption of the washing machine; even during the 1960s, the market-saturation rate there for washing machines was more than twice that of refrigerators). But the washing machine’s delayed ac- ceptance in Italy is surely attributable, in part, to the twin role of the woman as both mother and housewife, as well as worker. Even though middle-class Italian women served as the intermediaries between the family and the new consumer goods, husbands had com- plete charge of a family’s material well-being. Hence, family pur- chasing decisions were based upon well-established gender-driven constraints and priorities; a full refrigerator was more important as a mirror for a family’s level of material well-being than as a time- saving measure for its housekeeper.23

22 “Macchine lavabiancheria,” AE, 3, 3 (1955), 22; “Lavatrici: caratteristiche tecniche e prezzi indicativi (1),” AE, 3, 1 (1955), 43. 23 Scarpellini, L’Italia dei consumi, 153–154; Bowden and Offer, “Household Appliance”; WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 101 Another consideration, as much of the literature attests, is that the washing machine did not become established until women started to work outside the home. Unfortunately, the participation of Italian women in the job market during the 1950s and 1960s is difªcult to determine accurately. But, unlike working-class women, for whom such employment was a necessity imposed by the family budget, middle-class women in Italy had no such obliga- tion, at least during the economic boom. During the years covered Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 by this study, women’s participation in the job market was low. Es- timates made by the National Statistics Institute (Istat)showare- duction in the number of working women during the years of most intense economic growth, conªrmed by data relating to the second half of the 1970s. In 1977, the employment rate for women between the ages of ªfteen and sixty-four was around 30 percent, in line with ªgures for the early 1950s.24 Finally, middle-class women of the 1950s—both housekeepers and housewives—often resisted the use of washing machines for fear that their work, and thus their role in society and in the family, would be devalued. The generation of women that came of age in

Andrew Gordon, “Consumption, Consumerism, and Japanese Modernity,” in Frank Trentmann (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Consumption (New York, 2012), 501; Alessandra Pescarolo, “Il lavoro e le risorse delle donne in età contemporanea,” in Angela Groppi (ed.), Il lavoro delle donne (Rome, 1996), 341. For a social history of washing machines, see Enrica Asquer, La rivoluzione candida: Storia sociale della lavatrice in Italia (Roma, 2007). For a comparison with France, see Quynh Delaunay, La machine à laver en France: Un objet technique qui parle des femmes (Paris, 2010). For the creation of consumer society in France, see Marie Emmanuelle Chessel, Histoire de la consommation (Paris, 2012). For a more general discussion about the complexity of the relationship between gender and consumption, see De Grazia and Furlough (eds.), Sex of Things. 24 Elisabetta Bini et al., “Genere, consume, comportamenti negli anni cinquanta; Italia e Stati Uniti a confront,” Italia Contemporanea, CCXXIV (2001), 401–402; Eloisa Betti, “Women’s Working Conditions and Job Precariousness in Historical Perspective: The Case of Italian Industry during the Economic Boom (1958–1963),” in Izabella Agárdi et al. (eds.), Making Sense, Crafting History: Practices of Producing Historical Meaning (Pisa, 2010), 175–205; http://seriestoriche.istat.it/, accessed May 31, 2012; Enrica Asquer, Storia intima dei ceti medi: Una capitale e una periferia nell’Italia del miracolo economico (Rome, 2011), 78, 124–125, 136, 145; Asquer, La rivoluzione candida, 83–84. The impact of technological progress on the reduction of time spent on domestic chores is a matter still under debate. Some studies highlight how domestic technology increased, instead of reduced, the time spent on housework. For an introduction to the subject, see Ruth Schwartz Cowan, “The Industrial Revolution in the Home: Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century,” Technology and Culture, XVII, (1976), 1–23. Furthermore, the contribution of Italian husbands to housework was the smallest in Europe during the second half of the 1970s. See Commission des Communautés Européennes, Femmes et hommes d’Europe en 1978: Attitudes comparées a l’égard de quelques problèmes de societé (Bruxelles, 1979), 106–114. 102 | IVAN PARIS the mid-1960s, however, who were far removed from the depriva- tions of World War II and the gender constraints of the 1950s, demonstrated their distance from the maternal model of domestic- ity partly through the creation of a domestic culture open to new ideas, including greater comfort within the home. The data collected in the tables, which show notable increases in market- saturation rates for domestic appliances starting in the 1960s, reºect these new trends, further testifying that the spread of white goods Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 in Italy was ªrst hampered and then facilitated by social, cultural, and technological forces, not just economic ones.25 reasons for the differences in the spread of white goods The most obvious disparities in the adoption of domestic appliances in Italy were between the various income groups. Higher incomes would be expected to equate with higher consumption. Yet, certain elements of the working class were no less disposed to purchase these goods than were groups with higher incomes. Variables other than income were more signiªcant—again. In 1958, Luzzatto Fegiz divided interviewees into four income brackets. In the highest one, slightly more than 37 percent owned neither a television, a refrigerator, nor a washing machine. The ªgure was 98 percent in the lowest bracket, 94 percent in the bracket just above it, and 73 percent in the next-highest bracket— a hardly surprising observation when total income was the crucial variable. But Luzzatto Fegiz also found that the two professional groups among which domestic appliances proved to be the most popular were white-collar workers and entrepreneurs/shopkeepers/ craftsmen. In last place were housewives, manual workers, and farmers/agricultural workers. How could such expensive items be as prevalent among white-collar workers as they were among professional groups with higher average incomes? One possible answer is that the frequency with which wages were received was as important as total income. The advantage of having, say, a regular monthly salary permitted the option of paying for a purchase in installments.26

25 Liguori, “Donne e consumi,” 688; Asquer, Storia intima dei ceti medi, 51. For a general discussion of the young during the years of the economic miracle, see Simonetta Piccone Stella, La prima generazione: Ragazze e ragazzi nel miracolo economico italiano (Milan, 1993). For the young and consumption, see Capuzzo, Genere, generazione e consumi, 169–247. 26 Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto, 1689. WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 103 The development of this particular ªnancial strategy, hire- purchase, is closely related to the profound changes that the Italian consumer-credit market underwent during the 1950s. According to a study by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in 1955, total hire-purchase sales of consumer durables in Italy reached 300 bil- lion Italian lire (more than $480,000,000, equal to 15 percent of total sales of consumer durables and 3 percent of total consumption).

The number of domestic appliances purchased in installments was Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 signiªcant, comprising two-thirds of the total. These ªgures con- ªrm the importance of this ªnancial instrument in supporting demand, especially in the main urban centers, where the percentage of ªxed-income earners was higher and, therefore, the risk of in- solvency was lower. Almost a decade later (1963), 64.7 percent of domestic appliances were bought in installments (only motor cars and furs saw higher levels, at 68 and 67 percent, respectively); the percentages for washing machines and refrigerators reached 67 and 58 percent, respectively. Italy was similar to Japan in this respect. After World War II, Japan, like Italy, took advantage of a rapid rise in the electrical-goods industry to meet a sudden increase in domestic demand for consumer durables; hire purchase was crucial. Other countries—the United Kingdom, for one—did not follow this same path.27 In 1970, the aforementioned AE reported that differences in incomes were still hampering the spread of white goods: 40.9 percent of families with an income less than 600,000 Italian lire (just under $957) owned a refrigerator; 60.7 percent with an income between 600,000 and 1 million; 76.4 percent with an income between 1 and 1.2 million; 77.5 percent with an income between 1.2 and 1.5 million; 84.2 percent with an income between 1.5 and 2 million; 90.8 percent with an income between 2 and 2.5 million; 91.5 percent with an income between 2.5 and 3 million; 91.4 per- 27 Mario Pratico, Le vendite rateali nella nostra economia (Milan, 1955); Ministero dell’ Industria e del Commercio, Le vendite a rate dei beni di consumo in Italia (Milan, 1955); idem, Atti del convegno nazionale per lo studio delle vendite a rate dei beni di consumo: Milano: 1–3 dicembre 1955 (Milan, 1956); idem, Le vendite a rate dei beni strumentali in Italia (Milan, 1958); G. Savato, “Le vendite a rate nel settore Radio TV ed Elettrodomestici,” AE, 3, 12 (1955), 11–12; Giovanni F. Chiappano, “Le vendite a rate nell’attuale sviluppo economico,” ibid., 6, 5, (1958), 23–29; Gattoni, “Queste nostre cambiali,” ibid., 11, 4 (1963), 23–44; Sergio Banª, “L’eccessiva rateazione danneggia il settore (1)?,” ibid., 11, 3 (1963), 43–46. Gordon, “Consumption,” 501; Bowden and Offer, “Technological Revolution That Never Was,” 253–254. For the Japanese electrical goods industry, see Simon Partner, Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and The Making of the Japanese Consumer (Berkeley, 1999). 104 | IVAN PARIS cent with an income between 3 and 3.5 million; and 95.2 percent with an income greater than 3.5 million (the national average was 76.3 percent). For washing machines, the percentages were 13.9, 23.7, 47.8, 51, 64.6, 68.3, 73.6, 82.8, and 85 (the national average was 52.6 percent). Rural and urban areas evinced signiªcant differences. In 1968, enel (Ente Nazionale Energia Elettrica, Italy’s national electrical energy company) created an index based on the percentage of the population actively involved in agriculture, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 hunting, and ªshing. The study found refrigerator ownership to be 86.8 percent for areas with a rural index of less than 10 percent; 78.2 percent for an index between 11 percent and 20 percent; 74.9 percent for an index between 21 percent and 30 percent; 65.4 percent for an index between 31 percent and 40 percent; 58.6 percent for an index between 41 percent and 60 percent; and 43.1 percent for an index greater than 60 percent (the national average was 71.9 percent). For washing machines, the percentages were 58.6, 46.9, 42.3, 30.4, 27.6, and 16 (the national average was 41.8 percent).28 Tables 4 and 5 clearly show that between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s, the spread of appliances—particularly the three important labor-saving devices (washing machines, dishwashers, and ºoor polishers)—varied widely by geography. Market-saturation rates were higher in northern Italy and in larger conurbations. enel’s investigation enables us to determine, with regard to regional differences in refrigerator ownership, that at the end of the 1960s, the top three positions corresponded with northern regions—Lombardy (86.7 percent), Emilia Romagna (85.7 percent), and Veneto (84.1 percent). The bottom three positions were occupied by southern regions—Abruzzo (43 percent), Molise (38.8 percent), and Basilicata (33.7 percent) (the national average was 71.69 percent). The same north–south distinction holds for washing machines. The top positions were occupied by Aosta Val- ley (57.9 percent), Lombardy (54.6 percent), and Liguria (53.3 percent). The bottom positions belonged to Abruzzo (23.3 percent), Calabria (20 percent), and Basilicata (18.2 percent) (the national average was 41.8 percent).29 Lombardy and Basilicata represented the extremes of the Ital-

28 Gattoni, “Elettrodomestici e consumismo,” AE, 19, 12 (1971), 17–19; enel, “Utenza domestica,” 39. 29 enel, “Utenza domestica,” 37–38. Table 4 Market-Saturation Rate for the Main Domestic Appliances in Italy, 1956, 1965, and 1975, by Geographical Area northern and southern italy and southern and northern italy central italy central italy islands islands 1956 1965 1956 1965 1975 1956 1965 1975

Refrigerators 15.00% 62.00% 9.10% 49.00% 95.80% 6.80% 32.00% 91.20% Washing machines 3.50% 25.00% 2.50% 18.00% 82.10% 2.20% 12.00% 64.00% Dishwashers N/A 4.40%–5.00% N/A 5.80% 14.00% N/A 3.10%–4.30% 8.70% Floor polishers 5.20% 18.00% 1.20% 10.00% 54.90% 0.30% 3.00% 21.90% Vacuum cleaners 6.10% 11.00% 4.80% 9.00% N/A 2.30% 2.00% N/A Boilers 11.80% 17.00% 14.40% 30.00% 67.10% 5.40% 9.00% 59.30% Televisions 6.50% 48.00% 5.80% 53.00% 92.90% / 35.00% 89.10% sources Pierpaolo Luzzatto Fegiz, Il volto sconosciuto dell’Italia: seconda serie, 1956–1965 (Milan, 1966), 1718–1719; Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; idem, “Confronti internazionali,” AE, 6, 7 (1958), 21–35; G. B., “Il mercato delle lavabiancheria in Italia,” ibid., 8 (1960), 61–70; Rosen and Marini, “Il mercato dei frigoriferi in Italia,” ibid., 10 (1960), 33–37; “La diffusione di beni durevoli nel 1965,” ibid., 13, 2 (1966), 51; A. Gattoni, “Tecnologie di massa,” ibid., 15, 1 (1967), 17–18; “Statistica dell’Unipede sull’indice di saturazione in Europa dei principali elettrodomestici,” ibid., 19, 2 (1971), 20; “Gli elettrodomestici in una radioscopia dell’Europa,” ibid., 8 (1971), 33; “La diffusione degli elettrodomestici nel mondo occidentale agli inizi del 1974,” ibid., 22, 2 (1974), 11–15; Banca d’Italia, “Risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel 1968,” Estratto dal bollettino statistico della Banca d’Italia, XXV, 1 (1970), 26–33; idem, “Reddito, risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel

1975,” ibid., XXXII (1977), 44–50. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 September 24 on guest by http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf from Downloaded Table 5 Market-Saturation Rate for the Main Domestic Appliances in Italy, 1956, 1968, and 1975, by Size of Population Center rural (Ͻ5,000 urban/rural (5,000–50,000 inhabitants) inhabitants) urban (Ͼ50,000 inhabitants) 5,000– 20,000– 50,000– Ͻ5,000 20,000 50,000 200,000 Ͼ200,000 1956 1968 1975 1956 1968 1975 1956 1968 1975

Refrigerators 5.30% 57.42% 91.60% 10.20% 69.72% 93.90% 92.80% 17.00% 86.25% 96.80% 96.70% Washing machines 0.50% 26.94% 68.70% 2.20% 39.16% 74.50% 71.80% 4.60% 56.75% 83.20% 83.10% Dishwashers N/A 1.70% 5.50% N/A 3.40% 9.30% 12.00% N/A 4.60%–9.10% 13.00% 21.50% Floor polishers 0.40% N/A 36.30% 1.80% N/A 37.40% 39.40% 6.20% N/A 53.80% 55.60% Vacuum cleaners 1.10% N/A N/A 2.80% N/A N/A N/A 10.00% N/A N/A N/A Boilers 2.50% N/A 57.30% 8.40% N/A 53.90% 63.60% 18.60% N/A 73.80% 77.40% Televisions 2.50% 46.20% 89.90% 4.10% 62.38% 89.90% 89.40% 7.20% 78.63% 93.80% 95.20% sources Reworking of data collected in Franco Papette, “Il mercato degli apparecchi elettrodomestici in Italia (2),” Apparecchi Elettrodomestici nella Casa Moderna, 5, 12 (1957), 25–34; Ente Nazionale Energia Elettrica (enel), “Indagine sull’utenza domestica,” ibid., 18, 11 (1970), 40; Banca d’Italia, “Risparmio e struttura della ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel 1968,” Estratto dal bollettino statistico della Banca d’Italia, XXV, 1 (1970), 26–33; idem, “Reddito, risparmio e struttura della

ricchezza delle famiglie italiane nel 1975,” ibid., XXXII (1977), 44–50. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 September 24 on guest by http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf from Downloaded WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 107 ian peninsula not just in geographical terms but also in terms of the consumption, and the production, of white goods. Even in 1970, of the forty-ªve most important Italian refrigerator makers, only Emerson Electronics of Florence, Merloni of Fabriano (Ancona), and Prestcold of San Giorgio a Cremano (Naples) were located below an imaginary border created by the river Po. The suggestion that this regional discrepancy in the spread of white goods was due to climate might have some validity for washing machines (the cli- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 mate in the south supposedly favoring hand washing) but certainly not for refrigerators. Income was obviously an important factor. In 1971, the Aosta Valley was the wealthiest region in Italy, with a per capita income 35 percent higher than the national average. Lom- bardy (34 percent) and Piedmont (21 percent), both northern regions, were next in line. The poorest three regions were in the south—Sicily, Campania, and Calabria; they all had per capita incomes lower than the national average. Moreover, income inºuenced the spread of white goods not only directly but also in- directly. Low-income homes could not be constructed in a way that could accommodate them (small, disorganized spaces; lack of electricity and plumbing; etc.).30 Yet income is not the only, let alone the most important, ex- planation for these regional differences. In a 1969 survey, AE dis- covered that the average buyer of domestic appliances in Rome did not necessarily have a lower income than the average buyer in, say, Milan, despite the lower consumption of domestic appliances in Rome. Income alone cannot explain the difference. There were other factors responsible for these disparities. In Milan, for example, at the end of the 1960s, more than 70 percent of the total expenditure for white goods came in the form of installments. This method of payment was popular for all consumer durables, often the only way to enable their purchase.31 Other social and cultural factors must not be overlooked. Ac- cording to the previously mentioned 1950 study by Doxa, central-

30 “Frigoriferi: caratteristiche tecniche e prezzi informativi,” AE, 18, 5 (1970), 61–72. Emanuele Felice, “Income and Human Development: Measuring Regional Disparities in It- aly,”5, at http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/1/1658/papers/Felice.pdf, accessed June 3, 2009. See also idem, “Regional Value Added in Italy, 1891–2001, and the Foundation of a Long-Term Picture,” Economic History Review, III (2011), 929–950; Giovanni Vecchi, In ricchezza e in povertà: Il benessere degli italiani dall’Unità a oggi (Bologna, 2011). 31 Gattoni, “Lombardia all”avanguardia,” AE, 17, 1 (1969), 13–14. For incomes in the province of Rome and Milan, see Guglielmo Tagliacarne, Il reddito prodotto nelle provincie italiane, 1963–1970 (Milan, 1972). 108 | IVAN PARIS southern Italy had the highest percentage of families with full-time domestic staff (approximately 22 to 23 percent of the central- southern families interviewed). Sicily and Sardenia, the largest islands, had the largest proportion of families using domestic staff on an hourly basis (30 percent). Northern Italy had the highest percentage of women who did their housework alone. Moreover, the regions of north-central Italy had the highest incidence of female wage employment. By 1977, Marche (44.9 percent), Emilia Ro- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 magna (43.3 percent), and Molise (39.6 percent) had become the regions with the highest rates of employment for women ªfteen to sixty-four years old. In the north-central regions, only Abruzzi (31.6 percent), Liguria (29.6 percent), and Lazio (22.6 percent) were below the national average (31.8 percent).32 According to Gattoni and others, the regional differences in the popularity of domestic appliances were also explained by the “greater desire” of consumers in the north “to take advantage of the convenience that modern technology offered families.” This situation, although lacking in statistical grounding, is an outcome of profound economic, social, and cultural changes that were both the causes and consequences of the spread of domestic appliances. It is in accord with broader theories that view such changes as causes, and not simply as consequences, of the birth of the modern consumer society. In the case of Italy, they help to explain the exis- tence of signiªcant domestic differences between the north and the south.33

This article provides a new and far-reaching quantitative view of consumption in Italy during a period of profound transformation. It ªnds that the country’s adoption of white goods developed along uneven lines. With regard to income, for example, the frequency with which salaries were paid was often more important than total income. Only regular salary payments allowed purchases to be made in installments, which started to become common in Italy during the 1950s. The development of the consumer credit market helps to explain why northern and urban Italy showed higher

32 Doxa, “Inchiesta sul personale domestico”; http://seriestoriche.istat.it/, accessed May 31, 2012. 33 Gattoni, “Lombardia”; Trentmann, “Beyond Consumerism: New Historical Perspective on Consumption,” Journal of Contemporary History, XXXIX (2004), 373–401; Asquer, Storia intima dei ceti medi, 82–84. WHITE GOODS IN ITALY | 109 market-saturation rates than southern and rural Italy did and why white-collar workers, who did not boast particularly high levels of income, could show ownership rates for domestic appliances com- mensurate with those of entrepreneurs. The need for cultural, social, and technological factors to sup- plement the usual economic variables to explain the anomalies of white-goods consumption in Italy is the most important ªnding of this study. Houses often lacked the space and technology for Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 white goods; people doubted the ability of domestic appliances to take the place of manual work or to meet their practical needs, and did not value housework enough to buy them. Moreover, the commonplace use of domestic staff rendered them otiose. During the period considered, the factors that impeded the spread of these appliances lessened. Incomes rose; women began to work outside the home; appliances became more reliable; and newly built homes were designed to accommodate and to take advantage of them. The data in the tables clearly show that the saturation rates for the Italian market were continually on the rise. By 1973, Italian consumption of these goods was in line with those of the most advanced countries. These new objects also improved the lives of Italian families. The refrigerator, for example, allowed per- ishables to be kept longer, which, thanks also to the new supermarkets, reduced the amount of time spent on food shopping. The washing machine freed housewives from drudgery, creating time for outside employment (with obvious implications regarding the emancipation of women and disposable income), other domestic activities (with an increase in the average level of comfort enjoyed by families), or personal interests.34 Nevertheless, many of the earlier domestic differences remained within the national borders at least until the 1973 oil crisis. The percentage of families owning a refrigerator and washing machine in southern Italy remained lower than that in northern Italy, where market-saturation rates were in line with those of more advanced countries; it was even lower in the small towns and rural areas of both the north and the south. Notwithstanding the rhetoric about the “legendary” 1950s and 1960s, the Italian “economic boom” is subject to further interpretation, particularly with regard

34 For the history of supermarkets in Italy, see Scarpellini, “Shopping American-Style: The Arrival of the Supermarket in Postwar Italy,” Enterprise & Society, V (2004), 625–668. 110 | IVAN PARIS to consumption. If the spread of consumer durables, including the white goods discussed in this article, is an indicator of a country’s standard of living (at least from a material point of view) and a char- acteristic element of consumption patterns during the golden age of the Western economy, Italy’s resurgence after World War II was complicated by profound social and regional rifts. Italy’s improve- ment in consumption was neither immediate nor uniform in all parts of the Italian peninsula. During the years 1948 to 1973, Italy Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/44/1/83/1585130/jinh_a_00502.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 showed a plurality of consumption patterns, profoundly inºuenced by economic, as well as sociocultural and technological, factors. The process that would have led to the deªnitive formation of a single Italian middle class, deªned not only by income but also by shared consumption patterns that were typical of more advanced Western countries, had started, but its conclusion was still a long way ahead.35

35 “Standard of living” refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods, and necessities available to an individual or group. It should not be confused with the concept of well-being, which also takes into account the built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging. For the available indicators to measure standard of living, see, for example, Stanley L. Engerman, “The Standard of Living Debate in In- ternational Prospective: Measures And Indicators,” in Richard H. Steckel and Roderick Floud (eds.), Health and Welfare during Industrialization (Chicago, 1997), 17–45. See also Carole Shammas, “Standard of Living, Consumption, and Political Economy over the Past 500 Years”; Offer, “Consumption and Well-Being,” in Trentmann (ed.), Oxford Handbook, 211– 226, 653–671.