Th e neutralist behavior of the government was not the only factor that incensed industrialists and agrarian capitalists. Th ey viewed the events' concluding agreement in apocalyptic terms. Th ere was also the presence in parliament of a socialist minister of labour, Arturo Labriola, who in interviews and statements spoke openly of a phase of transition from a capitalist to a socialist economy. Moreover, as we have seen in chapter 3, those years marked an assault on capital through reforms, including measures against speculation, the taxation of excess war profits, the extraordinary tax on property, the compulsory registration of shares in the owners' names, steeper death duties, the legalization of land occupation, and much more.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 573