MINGHETTI, MARCO (1818-1886), Italian economist and statesman, was born at Bologna on Nov. 18, 1818. In 1846 he was appointed member of the State council summoned to pre pare the constitution for the papal States. In the first constitu tional cabinet, presided over by Cardinal Antonelli, Minghetti was minister of public works, but after the allocution by Pius IX. against the Italian war of independence he resigned, and joined the Piedmontese arms' as captain on the general staff. Re turning to Rome in Sept. 1848, he refused to form a cabinet after the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi, and spent the next eight years in study and travel. He was in 1859 appointed by Cavour secretary-general of the Piedmontese Foreign Office. In the same year he was elected president of the assembly of the Romagna, after the rejection of pontifical rule by those provinces, and prepared their annexation to Piedmont.
Appointed Piedmontese minister of the interior, he resigned office shortly after Cavour's death, but was later made minister of finance by Farini, whom he succeeded as premier in 1863. With the help of Visconti-Venosta he concluded (Sept. 15, 1864) the "September Convention" with France, whereby Napoleon agreed to evacuate Rome, and Italy to transfer her capital from Turin to Florence. Minghetti was then driven from office. He took
little part in public life until 1869, when he became minister of agriculture in the Menabrea Cabinet. Both in and out of office he exercised his influence against an Italo-French alliance and for an immediate advance upon Rome, and in 187o was sent to Lon don and Vienna by the Lanza-Sella Cabinet to organize a league of neutral powers. In 1873 he overthrew the Lanza-Sella Cabinet and was premier and minister of finance until the fall of the Right on March 18, 1876. During his premiership he inaugurated the rapprochement between Italy, Austria and Germany; and, as finance minister, restored equilibrium between expenditure and revenue for the first time since 186o. After the advent of the Left, Minghetti remained for some years in Opposition, but towards 1884 joined Depretis in creating the "Trasformismo," which con sisted in bringing Conservative support to Liberal cabinets. Ming hetti died at Rome on Dec. 1o, 1886. His writings include : Della economia pubblica e delle sue attinenze con la morale e col diritto (Bologna, 1859), and La Chiesa e lo Stato (Milan, 1878).