Abstract

Capital inflows were crucial for the Italian economy after Unification. Their impact positively affected the current account, suffering a constant trade balance deficit. Conventional wisdom emphasizes remittances as the main positive element balancing the current account. However, these findings refer to data from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT ) that have been considered unreliable by many economic historians. This paper provides an original dataset rejecting the thesis on remittances and suggests tourism as the key element influencing balance of payments trends until World War I.