Governor Stringher
Tipologia: Paragrafo/Articolo – Data pubblicazione: 03/01/1931
Governor Stringher
«The Economist», 3 gennaio 1931, p. 12.
Our Turin correspondent writes: The death, on Christmas Eve, of Signor Stringher, Governor of the Bank of Italy, is a grave loss both to the bank and to the country. Born at Udine in 1854, Senator Stringher was a student at the Venice School of Economics during the time when Italy’s greatest nineteenth-century economist, Francesco Ferrara, was director of the school. In 1875 he was called by Signor Bodio to the Central Statistical Office at Rome, and he rose rapidly from one responsible office to another. The Bank Act of 1893, of which, as Inspector-General of the issue banks, he was the principal author, was the outcome of the banking crisis which followed the Banca Romana scandals and the note forgeries of that year, and still remains the foundation of Italian banking law. Signor Stringher became a Member of Parliament in 1900 and was soon appointed Under-Secretary of State to the Treasury. On the death of Signor Marchiori he was appointed Director-General of the Bank of Italy and in this office, which was changed to that of Governor in 1928, it was his duty to administer the Act of which he had been the main author. Under his guidance the Bank of Italy greatly improved its position and successfully withstood the crisis of 1907 and the still greater strain imposed by the war. Small of stature and unassuming in manner, Signor Stringher was noted alike for his courtesy to visitors and for his ability to soften, by the manner of its utterance, the negative reply which it is perhaps the first duty of the Governor of a bank of issue to know when and how to give. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether he made a firm enough stand against government pressure for constant new note issues during the war, but it is certain that he made a firmer stand than many of his colleagues in other countries and that he subsequently succeeded in reducing the issues from over 22,000 million lire to less than 16,000 millions. The balance sheet of the Bank of Italy at the time of his death is a testimonial to the soundness of his administration. In addition to his practical banking activities, Signor Stringher held a chair at the University of Rome for some years and was a member of many learned societies. His annual reports to the shareholders of the Bank of Italy will remain a classic source of the economic history of Italy during the first thirty years of this century.