Above its weight

Random note while I’m thinking of it. Modern Italy punches WAY above its weight in many areas.

Between 1895 and 1950, Italy was a major influencer in automotive engineering. Early US auto founders visited Italy and France for inspiration, not Germany and England, despite our much closer cultural and economic ties with the latter. The postwar compacts (Rambler, Jet) were specifically copied from Fiat models.

Fiat spread automaking into the Soviet sphere from 1960 to 2000, during and after the USSR. Italian designers (not necessarily at Fiat) shaped all auto styling for the same 40 years. Now Fiat owns about half of US automakers, despite missing out here for the same 40 years when VW and Toyota were in charge.

I’ve also noticed far more Italians than Germans and French in the best scientific research. They’re the most productive Euros, which is admittedly a low bar now. China owns science.

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Trying to think about why… Simplest answer is that Italy never abandoned mercantilism. From 1900 to 1970, US was the world’s dominant builder. Headquarters in Detroit or Newark was the trunk, and other countries had branches. Each branch developed its own local products with its own engineers and factory workers. The trunk shipped some parts but mainly received profit, while the branches gained useful creative work and pay. After 1970 we sawed down our trunks and became nothing but a sales outlet for factories in China, which were not even owned by our headquarters. From GM to WalMart.

Italy resisted OUR mercantilism. Our auto and electronics firms never built branches in Italy.

Instead, Italy branched into countries we stupidly refused to recognize.

Fiat figured out how to deal with the Soviet system, created semi-independent branches in those countries, encouraged them to do their own designs, and profited from royalties and licensing.