Add to ORKGTrade policy, and its effects oftariffs on structural change and industrialization, is arguably the 1110st contentious topic in Italian economic history. However, so far the discussion has relied almost exclusively on few scattered data and anecdotal evidence. This article builds on a comprehensive data-base of nominal and effective protection rates to test the main hypotheses put forward in the literature. We show that there is little evidence of a deliberate strategy to foster industrialization, or of any consisted strategy at aH. So we argue that the actual lay-out of Italian duties was the somewhat haphazard outcome of several causes, notably the need for revenue and the lobbying by sectional interests