Public works, central state and local authorities A programme for port construction sites in the early years of Italian unity

With the fervor of national unification behind it, despite the financial weight of the war economy, the new Italian state created a brash policy promoting major port works projects. Through an interplay of scales, from the policy carried out on a national scale to setbacks in the Neapolitan public market, this contribution studies the economic, social, and administrative underpinnings of such voluntarism and underlines its limits.