Italy's Economic Struggles
            
            
             In the time period between 1700 to 1900 Italy's economic situation was greatly effected by it's disunity and it's distribution among the many countries of Europe. Previous to 1860, Italy was not united, it was divided into separate city-states, or controlled by a foreign power. One of these being Spain, who had undergone a disastrous decline in it's economy, leading to a decrease in Italy's as well. In 1815, with the Congress of Vienna, Italy was reorganized and the disunity and separation became more severe. It was because of this disunity that Italy experienced a financial failure. With out territorial unity, Italy could not construct economic stability. Distracted by the hope and dream of a unified Italy, Italians focused on their political position rather than their economic situation . Although the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700's Italy remained predominately agricultural and unindustrialized up into the late 1800's. This greatly affected Italy because agriculture encountered a fall in prices among foreign markets. In 1878 with the abolition of the Free Trade System and the introduction of tariffs, Italy was able to expand it's industry largely (8% a year). But even with the close of the nineteenth century, a century since the start of the Industrial Revolution, three out of four Italians depended on the production of cereal, olives, vines, fruit, sheep or some other means of agriculture to survive. While the majority of the rest of Europe was controlled by it's industry, Italy remained under the poverty of farming. With economic hardship rising a vast amount of Italians (19%), essentially being from the small land owning classes, migrated to other countries with economic stability and prosperity. With the separation of Italy also came a separation in the regions of Northern and Southern Italy. The North, having been under the rule o...