Let’s start with a simple truth, almost banal, but which is not banal at all: the gold in the national reserve cannot be touched. The Malan amendment, reformulated with reference to the EU Treaties, established an important political point: the ingots belong to the Italian people. Principle never questioned. But he is managing it Bank of Italy. As before. As always.
The border of sovereignty
That treasure cannot be touched because it is the last bastion of national sovereigntythe monetary equivalent of the walls of a medieval city. When everything else has been negotiated, promised, postponed or refinanced, that’s where you arrive. And it’s stop. There is no going beyond this point.
There Bank of Italy he is the guard of this border. And it always has been. The Duce had also tried to break down that door. And, in fact, in the winter of 1944 a few German trucks left from Via Nazionale headed to Salò and then to Fortezza in Alto Adige. Intense traffic and full of shadows that fueled powerful legends starting with the famous “Dongo Gold”. At the end of the war, almost all the ingots returned to Rome on American trucks. Was a spell protecting that treasure? Or perhaps the big international finance in Washington and London had decided that as the Cold War arrived it was not appropriate to weaken Italy too much, depriving it of its gold reserves. By explaining them like this, perhaps we understand a few things that happened in the following decades. Starting with the political and cultural passions of the governor and the members of the directorate.
A lifelong mandate
Because the fundamental step is here. The position of head of Bank of Italyuntil Antonio Fazioit had no expiration. It was a life term. Like the Pope. And why? Because it was necessary to guarantee its independence in monetary policy choices. But above all so that no government, of any colour, could present itself with hat in hand and say “we could use some of that gold”. Not even for a good cause, not even with the best intentions, not even with an urgent decree.
The numbers that make your head spin
Because then, behind the ritual, there is the real treasure. The one that has ignited political fantasies for decades and promptly resurfaces in moments of difficulty. Here we are no longer in the field of monetary liturgy: we are talking about 2,452 tons of goldwhich at market prices are worth approximately 272 billion eurosjust under 9 percent of the Italian public debt. A figure that, put like that, makes your head spin. And in fact, many people’s heads are really spinning.
This metal doesn’t all fit in the same place, because wealth, by definition, doesn’t like to sit still and hates to be found. A tiny part – 4.1 tons – it is in coins, 871,713 piecesto be precise. The bulk, however, is in ingots, serious, heavy, which do not move without leaving a trace in the registers and muscles of those who transport them.
Where is Italian gold found?
About 1,100 tons they rest in the basement of Koch Palacein via Nazionale 91, in Rome. Other 1,061 tons I’m in the United States, among the legendary chest of Fort Knox and the vaults of the New York Federal Reservea depot built in 1920 and reinforced so many times that it is now considered one of the most inaccessible places on the planet. Smaller odds stand at London and in Swiss. And then there are the 141 tons given to European Central Bank in 1999, when the lira said goodbye and the euro entered the scene: a sort of guarantee to enter the club.
A silent superpower
Within this golden universe, ancient and ever new, Italy is one superpower. Third in the world in terms of absolute quantity of official reserves, behind only the United States and Germany. But – and this is where the data becomes really interesting – first in the world if we compare gold to national GDP. A rarely talked about record, but an eloquent one. Especially for those who love to fantasize about possible local financial crises.
The United States owns 8,133 tonsGermany 3,350then Italy arrives with 2,452 tonsfollowed by France, Russia, China and Switzerland. But if we look at the weight of gold on the economy, Rome stands out: the reserves are worth approximately 12 percent of GDPmore than Russia (11.7), the United States (11), France (9) and Germany (8.5). Translated: a huge chest in proportion to our economy, and this is what makes Italian gold so attractive in political discussions.
The temptations of politics
And, in fact, over the years, ideas on how to “use” it have never been lacking. Not just the amendment signed by the senator of the Brothers of Italy Lucio Malanwhich established that the gold reserves belong to the people, an evocative formula that always has its effect. Even before that, someone had fantasized about the use of ingots as a pillar of a Italian sovereign fundwhere part of the public debt can be channeled. In 2005, the govt Berlusconi he went so far as to pass a law to transfer him to the Ministry of Economy, which was then canceled in 2013. Romano Prodiin the midst of the 2007 crisis, proposed giving the gold to a European fund to guarantee common securities. THE 5 starswith greater immediacy, they thought of using it to finance the Citizenship income.
And this is where the anecdotal becomes irresistible: because the story of when some five-star exponents, once in government, knocked on the door on Via Nazionale remains in the annals. Not for a courtesy visit, but to see the gold with your own eyes. They wanted to touch the ingots, verify their existence, and it seems that someone asked – with genuine disbelief – whether they were real or just plated pieces of iron. Scenes that seem like something out of a movie Monicellibut with badges, armed guards and armored doors. There was a lot of laughter at the time. Less today: because the gold question has returned terribly serious.
When gold made history
History, after all, explains everything. In the 1934In the United States, a law transferred gold from the Federal Reserve to the Treasury. In Italy, before the war, the reserve exceeded 561 tonsbut in 1940, with the entry into the conflict, it had already dropped to 106. After the armistice of 1943, much of the gold was requisitioned by the Germans: 92 tons they ended up in Fortezza, in Alto Adige, and only in 1945 did they return to Rome thanks to the allies.
Then came the economic miracle. Italy exported, cashed in currency and transformed it into ingots. Paolo Baffiin 1953, sensed that global expansion would make gold scarce and precious. Guido Carliwho became governor in 1960, listened to him. When the price began to rise in London, people bought things at Palazzo Koch. So much so that it worried the United States, which kindly invited them to slow down. Invitation rejected. In 1973, on the eve of the oil crisis, Italy had accumulated 2,565 tons.
Then the lira went into crisis and in 1976 the government Andreotti asked Germany for help. There Bundesbank he accepted, but demanded 543 tons as a guarantee. The gold traveled to Frankfurt on armored trains. Years later he went back. But not everything as before: on many ingots theGerman eaglethe Bundesadler. A bloody disgrace, an affirmation of economic power and almost contempt for the usual Italians that tells better than a thousand essays what it means to depend on others.
Here’s why the gold of the Bank of Italy cannot be touched. Because it is memory, sovereignty, insurance on the life of a country. It is a treasure that makes you smile, discuss and fantasize. But which, in the end, remains there: heavy, silent, shimmering. AND terribly serious. Even when someone tries to make light of it.
