Likewise, the Italian state owned 60 munitions factories; by 1917 it had seized the right to requisition plants and take direct control of the production process in cases of ineffi cient private management. Th is legislation was preceded by other actions that expropriated private property, even without consent. Such expropriations included government seizure of industrial patents in order to orient them toward national security.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 136