Archive · 17 Sep 2026
Italy's Long Economic Ties with India, from Silk to Fiat
Italy and India traded with each other long before modern India became independent.
Italian experts helped introduce a silk-making method to Bengal in the 1700s.
Later, Italian businesses sold silk yarn and coral to Indian customers.
Coral often traveled from Japan to Italy for processing and then back to India for sale.
Indian merchants helped Italian companies understand customers and move goods around the country.
Italy did not rule India, because Britain controlled the colonial government.
Still, Italian companies found ways to make money within the system Britain had created.
After India became independent, the government had more control over foreign businesses and technology.
A partnership involving Premier Automobiles and Fiat showed how this relationship continued in a new way.
Italian economic interest in India began before national unification and expanded after 1861.
Piedmontese silk-reeling methods were introduced into Bengal in 1769 through the East India Company.
Torre del Greco firms made coral Italy’s most important export to India before World War I.
Italian traders relied heavily on Indian merchants, brokers, financiers and market knowledge despite colonial racial hierarchies.
After independence, Premier Automobiles formed a technical relationship with Fiat in the early 1950s.
- Who
- Italian merchants, manufacturers and firms, Indian traders and consumers, British colonial authorities, and later Premier Automobiles and Fiat.
- What
- The history of Italy’s commercial and industrial ties with India, from silk and coral trading to post-independence automobile collaboration.
- When
- From the eighteenth century through the colonial period and into the early 1950s and after.
- Where
- British India, especially Bengal, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Banaras, as well as Italy, Japan and the Mediterranean.
- Why
- Italian businesses sought Indian markets, raw materials, commercial connections and opportunities to use Italian technology and processing expertise.
Commercial Opportunity
Colonial Critique
How Italy benefited
Commercial Opportunity
Italian firms used specialist skills in silk, coral processing, shipping and automobile technology to participate in Indian commerce.
Colonial Critique
Italy profited from a colonial economic order created by Britain without governing India directly, benefiting from access to ports, markets and commercial institutions.
Role of Indian merchants
Commercial Opportunity
Indian merchants, brokers and financiers were essential partners who supplied market knowledge, distribution networks and access to customers.
Colonial Critique
The relationship was unequal: Italian traders sometimes distrusted Indian merchants, and colonial racial hierarchies shaped commercial recommendations and opportunities.
Meaning of trade flows
Commercial Opportunity
The coral trade demonstrated a complex international division of labor in which Japan, Italy and India each contributed to commercial value.
Colonial Critique
The trade also showed that colonial advantage did not require extracting Indian raw materials; foreign firms could capture value through Indian purchasing power, pricing influence and market access.
- Early silk connection
- The East India Company introduced Piedmontese silk-reeling methods into Bengal in 1769.
- Silkworm expedition
- Giovan Battista Castellani and Gherardo Freschi searched India and China for healthy silkworm stock in 1859.
- Italian silk exports
- India imported 43 tonnes of Italian silk yarn in 1907, with practically all of it destined for Banaras.
- Coral trade
- Before World War I, coral was Italy’s most important export to India.
- Commercial centers
- Torre del Greco firms established branches in Calcutta and agents in Bombay and Madras from the late 1870s.
- Post-independence industry
- Premier Automobiles entered a technical relationship with Fiat in the early 1950s.
- Colonial position
- Italy operated in India without territorial sovereignty, jurisdiction or political control.