Italy: Trader With The World

The Italian Peninsula has a long and storied history of trade. Glass beads from the Roman Empire have been found as far afield as Korea and Southeast Asia. Medieval Venice grew wealthy through trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world. Spurred on by tales of riches, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the Age of Discovery.

As a result of its long history, Italy’s cultural wealth and heritage is second-to-none. Italy is home to 54 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth-most visited country for tourists.

Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under the Italian monarchy. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italyis a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC) and its subsequent successors the EC and the EU. It has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.

Italy’s economy comprises a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less-developed agricultural south. The Italian economy is driven in large part by the manufacture of high-quality consumer goods produced by small and medium-sized enterprises, many of them family-owned. It is the third-largest economy in the Eurozone, and eighth-largest worldwide by GDP.

ITALIAN TRADE WITH ASEAN