The "Banca Commerciale Italiana" (Italian Commercial Bank) (1894-1936). The Thirty Years and the Mattioli-Zappa Dispute

This study intends to investigate some aspects relating to the history of the Italian Commercial Bank (Banca Commerciale Italiana) (1894-1936) by consulting the original material and documentation preserved in the Historical Archive of Intesa Sanpaolo (Milan, Italy). The aims are the recognition of primary sources, mainly characterised by accounting papers, with a specific focus on the period relating to the great crisis of 1929 and the bank rescue operation (1933-1935), and analysis of secondary sources (Italian and international literature). This study analyses the Mattioli/Zappa dispute based on the appraisal prepared by Gino Zappa (analysis of the financial statements of the Comit for the year 1934) and relative contextualisation of some arguments based on the development of accounting and economic-business thinking of the reference period. In particular, the critical concern that is shown in the entire document at different points is the heartfelt affirmation of a fundamental concept in Zappa's thought, namely the indeterminacy of accounting data and the problems connected to the difficulties of business valuation practices linked to the formulation of an overall opinion on the financial and economic structure of a particular corporate organisation such as the Comit of the 30s.