Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen · 1903
Schullern’s German review of Ferdinando Piccinelli’s Le società industriali italiane per azioni (1902) assesses the handbook through its organization and documentary usefulness. It distinguishes an accessible account of company law and economic institutions from a descriptive survey useful beyond an Italian readership.
An introduction to the origins, nature, and development of commercial companies leads into a 176-page theoretical-practical section. Schullern characterizes its treatment of joint-stock companies, trademarks, designs, patents, and labour law as concise, clearly organized, and attentive to Italian legislation. He identifies a liberal economic outlook, presented accessibly without engagement in scholarly controversies.
The larger remainder describes individual enterprises. Here “industrial” encompasses agriculture, mining, fishing, transport, insurance, and hotels. This breadth makes the handbook evidence for the extension of joint-stock organization across diverse economic activities.
Die Gesamtzahl der dargestellten Aktiengesellschaften beträgt 617.
English translation: The total number of joint-stock companies presented amounts to 617.
This total establishes the survey’s substantial coverage. Schullern also values its chronological arrangement within individual groups, which allows readers to trace aspects of corporate development alongside contemporary conditions. His endorsement thus concerns historical usefulness as well as practical reference value.
A concluding statistical table divides the material into three groups and nineteen subgroups, recording capital, reserves, bonds, and financial results. Schullern emphasizes the aggregate scale:
Die Nominalkapitalien aller 617 Gesellschaften wurden mit fast 2 Milliarden, die Reserven mit 125 Millionen, die umlaufenden Obligationen mit 1400 Millionen beziffert.
English translation: The nominal capital of all 617 companies was put at almost 2 billion, the reserves at 125 million, the bonds in circulation at 1,400 million.
These figures complement the company descriptions by indicating their financial dimensions. The review closes with agricultural examples involving land improvement and cultivation around Ferrara, cultivation of unused Italian land, and the drying of silk cocoons and grain. These examples give concrete substance to the handbook’s expansive category of productive enterprise. Schullern’s assessment rests chiefly on the work’s clarity, range, and capacity to document Italian joint-stock enterprise.
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