"Lemons for machines" and "cabbages into the sea": international economic and commercial relations between Italy, Germany, and Great Britain at the dawn of the Second World War

The work offers a reassessment of some aspects of the economic and commercial relations between Italy, Germany, and Great Britain from the 1930s to 1940, using files from several archives of those states. Its purpose is to offer a reinterpretation that leads to a comprehensive understanding of the political and diplomatic dynamics that led to the creation of the Axis (1936), to that of the Pact of steel (1939), to the British decision not to "buy" Italian neutrality (1939-40) and to the entry of Italy into the Second World War (1940). The paper focuses also on the interactions between economic and commercial policies with international and foreign politics, allowing to shed new light on whether and to what extent the latter were influenced by the first ones and/or vice versa. The relation between economic and political elements was in fact tackled in two very different ways by Germany and Italy, on the one hand, and Great Britain, on the other. While London never 'downgraded' the economic aspects in the relations it built with Italy, the fascist regimes, even in the relations between themselves, could, in a specific moment, give full priority to politics, complying with their boasted-about beliefs.