The story of the tobacco Monopoly has been going on throughout Italy's economic history, up until recent times, becoming an emblem of the State's role as an entrepreneur. The state of what was Italy's first State-controlled company was, when Italy became a single nation, almost catastrophic. Attempts at reform proved to be unsatisfactory, but they laid the foundations for a progressive modernisation of the company. In the Giolitti era the Monopolio enjoyed its ‘heyday', demonstrating full industrial maturity, despite remaining under the control of the State. It was only when it took on a more autonomous form of organisation that the Monopolio took a perverse, sclerotic path, plunging it back to its initial state.