Giulio Alessio was professor of Finance and, after 1920, Political economy at the University of Padua for more than fifty years.
22 Facts About Giulio Alessio
Giulio Alessio was not yet thirty when he produced his two volume study of the evolution of the Italian taxation system between 1861 and approximately 1900.
Giulio Alessio accepted several ministerial appointments in centre-left governments between 1920 and the coming to power in 1922 of Benito Mussolini, whose tactics and policies he excoriated.
Giulio Alessio was born in Padua, an ancient city which was and is home to one of the oldest still extant universities in the world, a short distance inland to the west of Venice.
Giulio Alessio graduated with a degree in Jurisprudence in 1874 and then taught for two years at "istituti tecnici".
In 1880, Giulio Alessio accepted the newly inaugurated teaching chair in Finance and Financial Law, still at the University of Padua, by this time working as a lawyer.
Giulio Alessio served for many years as a member of the Padua city council, taking on the budget portfolio.
In March 1897 Giulio Alessio was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house - and the only elected assembly - of Italy's bicameral parliament.
Giulio Alessio sat as a member of the grouping generally identified in retrospect by historians as the "Historical Far Left".
The arrival of a new government brought promotion for Giulio Alessio, who served between June 1920 and July 1921 as Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Giulio Alessio presided over a series of tariff reforms which had the overall effect of increasing customs duties on imports, while he simultaneously took steps to cut back on restrictive controls over internal commerce that had been imposed during the war.
Giulio Alessio returned to ministerial office in August 1922 as a Minister of Justice in the short-lived Facta government.
Giulio Alessio held the office for three months, which was the lifespan of what turned out to be the last government before Mussolini's successful; power grab.
Giulio Alessio was in contact with Giolitti and Orlando, desperately trying to find a way to preserve unity among democratic parties.
Giulio Alessio was Jewish, which has led to suggestions that for reasons of race he was necessarily opposed to the Fascist government which took power at the end of 1922.
Giulio Alessio certainly did emerge very quickly as a committed and outspoken anti-fascist, but contemporary sources indicate that this was principally a matter of political conviction.
Giulio Alessio was a leading politician of the pre-fascist era and a democrat.
Giulio Alessio was, till October 1922, the Minister of Justice.
The next year Giulio Alessio added his signature to the so-called Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, authored by Benedetto Croce.
Giulio Alessio was able to expand his teaching activities at the University of Padua.
Giulio Alessio had already started to teach a new course in Political economy in 1920.
Giulio Alessio was released, but the loss of his teaching position proved permanent.