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When Globalization Comes Home: Commodity Prices and Labour Conflict in Italy, 1881–1910

Author

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  • Buscemi, Tancredi
  • Missiaia, Anna
  • Pellegrino, Dario

Abstract

The turn of the twentieth century marked the rise of mass labour conflict in the industrializing West, alongside a general expansion of global market integration. This paper tests the link between the two, using newly digitized provincial data on strikes in Italy (1881–1910) and province-specific measures of exposure to world markets, based on international commodity price shocks and occupational shares. We focus on silk cocoons, a sizeable home production for many rural households and the raw input of the main Italian export at that time, and find that falls in their world price were followed by more strikes for higher wages or better conditions in agriculture and low-mechanization sectors, as workers sought to offset lost household income by striking in the sectors where household members were employed. A contrasting case, Sicilian sulphur, in which the commodity entered firm revenues rather than household budgets, is consistent with a dynamic internal to the sector: strikes for higher wages rose with prices, while strikes in defence of existing conditions rose when prices fell.

Suggested Citation

  • Buscemi, Tancredi & Missiaia, Anna & Pellegrino, Dario, 2026. "When Globalization Comes Home: Commodity Prices and Labour Conflict in Italy, 1881–1910," CEPR Discussion Papers 22107, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:22107
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    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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