Abstract

In the mid-1920s the Istituto nazionale delle assicurazioni, with the aim of improving its business, became a major shareholder in the Italian insurance and reassurance company Atlante; after just a few years this investment turned out to be unproductive, with also a possible loss of millions. The paper, based on archival research, aims, on the one hand, to describe the behavior of Giuseppe Mastromattei, who, as Ina’s representative in the executive board of Atlante, proved to be mostly inadequate for his role (nevertheless he would be promoted prefetto); on the other hand, to show how the new administrators of the Istituto, appointed in 1929, tried to avoid greater damages, even if, despite their efforts, by the end of the Second World War Ina would have lost four and a half million lire.