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Abstract: Abstract: Franco Bonelli has died. In this paper I highlight four of the concepts covered in the work of a man who gained a reputation as a major economic historian. He demonstrated that economic growth is the result of a myriad of partially independent microprocesses; taking place within a histoire totale rather than depending on any general equilibrium. Bonelli also placed financial resources for the construction of fixed capital at the core of economic progress. Nonetheless, material collected by Bonelli on banks and central banks raises the question of whether financial resources might simply be a veil hiding deeper processes. His work on the 1907 crisis, much admired by Charles Kindleberger, was a masterpiece on the mechanisms of financial crises, the rationale of bail-outs, and the multiplicity of means central banks can adopt to avoid disastrous wounds in the economic tissue. Finally I look at how he stressed the role of nation states in pursuing economic growth, promoting progressive business practices, and protecting their citizens; European capitalism today, on the other hand, is diminished by a lack of top-level protective and entrepreneurial functions.  

Keywords: Franco Bonelli; State Intervention; Banking Crises; Bail Out; Competition