Giovanni Agnelli

Italian businessman (1866–1945)
his grandson

Giovanni Agnelli (13 August 1866 – 16 December 1945) was an Italian businessman who founded the Fiat S. p. A. car manufacturing in 1899.

The son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti, a landowning family who grew up in families rooted in the business, entrepreneurial, and financial environment of Turin on the eve of its industrialization, he was born in 1866 in Villar Perosa, a small town near Pinerolo, Piedmont, still the main home and burial place of the Agnelli family. His father, mayor of Villar Perosa, died at age 40, when he was five. He studied at the Collegio San Giuseppe in Turin, and then embarked on a military career. In 1893, Agnelli returned to Villar Perosa, where he followed in his father's footsteps and became mayor in 1895, a post that he held until his death in 1945; he was succeeded by his grandson, Gianni Agnelli, whom he took care of since his son, Edoardo Agnelli, died in a plane accident in 1935. In the late 19th century, Agnelli heard about the invention of the then new horseless carriage and immediately saw an opportunity for using his engineering and entrepreneurial skills. In 1898, he met Count Emanuele Cacherano di Bricherasio, who was looking for investors for his horseless carriage project; Agnelli sensed the opportunity and Fiat was founded in 1899. He married Clara Boselli; they had seven children. As of 2000, from Agnelli and Boselli came over seventy descendants between children, nephews, and spouses.

On 11 July 1899, Agnelli was part of the group of founding members of Fiat S. p. A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, which became Fiat; he paid $400 for his share. One year later, he was the managing director of the new company and became the chairman in 1920. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900 with 35 staff making 24 cars. The company was known from the beginning for the talent and creativity of its engineering staff. By 1903, Fiat made a small profit and produced 135 cars growing to 1,149 cars by 1906. The company then went public selling shares via the Milan stock exchange. Agnelli began purchasing all the shares he could to add to his holdings. During this time, he overcame scandals and labour problems, such as in the Biennio Rosso. He asked Giovanni Giolitti to intervene militarily to clear up Fiat's factories; Giolitti refused. When the revolt died down and a workers' delegation, after a failed attempt at self management, handed him the keys to the factories by demobilizing the armed pickets, he did not seek retaliation. He offered a new contract to workers with wages linked to productivity in a period of economic stagnation. During World War I, Agnelli became involved with the financier Riccardo Gualino in the transport of United States aid to Europe in 1917. They invested in two enterprises in the United States; the Marine & Commerce Corporation of America exported coal and the International Shipbuilding Company made motorized vessels. These companies failed when the war ended since they were structured to meet wartime demand but had returned large profits to their owners. In early 1918, Agnelli and Gualino made an attempt to take over Credito Italiano. They did not succeed but joined the board of directors of the bank. Agnelli was vice president of Gualino's SNIA S. p. A. from 1917 to 1926. In the early 1920s, SNIA began to manufacture artificial textile fibres. Suffering from debt, Agnelli offered to help Gualino in exchange for Fiat shares, and by 1927 he became the major shareholder of Fiat. In 1920, Gualino and Agnelli participated in recapitalization of the private bank Jean de Fernex and bought a third of the shares of Alfredo Frassati, publisher of La Stampa. Gualino and Agnelli were also involved in a proposal to link Milan, Genoa, and Turin with a high speed railway and in various projects in cement and automobiles. Their partnership broke up around 1926 due to Gualino's investments in the French automobile industry. A monarchist, Agnelli sought to create a non ideological, centrist political formation of Atlanticist and pro European persuasion that sought modernizing, internationalist capitalism in contrast to the left and opposed to the populist, nationalist, or fascist right. He was a supporter of Giolitti. Before joining the National List of 1924, he was tempted by the Economic Party for the 1919 Italian general election.

An acquaintance of Benito Mussolini since 1914, Agnelli was appointed in 1923 by Mussolini as a senator for the National Fascist Party. His newspaper La Stampa distanced themselves from Mussolini; thanks to his connections with the House of Savoy, he could assert autonomy from the Italian fascist regime. As an example, he appointed Curzio Malaparte, who was disliked by Mussolini, as director of La Stampa, and took on as private tutor of his grandson the liberal anti fascist Franco Antonicelli, and allowed his nephews to attend as their tutor the anti fascist Augusto Monti, and another anti fascist, Massimo Mila, as their musicologist. In addition, he sought as accountant Vittorio Valletta, who was known to the Fascist regime for his social democratic ideas, membership in Freemasonry, and clandestine connections with exiled anti fascists in France, including Giuseppe Saragat. While they shared mutual benefits in the field of war orders, Fiat always maintained a line of independence from the Fascist regime's totalitarian aspirations. In his work about the Italian resistance, Sergio Favretto's book argues that Fiat was actively involved alongside the resistance; the company supplied vehicles and petrol, made large sums available to support the movement, and collaborated in the sabotage of war production in its own plants. Agnelli was later acquitted, and he died soon after on 16 December 1945 at age 79.