Taking into consideration the statistical data provided by the 1871 census, the first implemented by the Reign of Italy, the A. underlines that, if under certain aspects (infant mortality rate, illiteracy, life expectancy at birth) the Centre-South of Italy appeared backward in comparison with the North, such a difference was not so deep in the economic field. The heavy public debt, which weighed on the new state, was due for 64% to the Reign of Sardinia and to Lombardy. The financial resources, necessary to the new state, were achieved thanks to the gold belonging to the Reign of Naples, the strong increase of the fiscal pressure introduced by the Piedmontese administration, the selling of State and Church properties, new issues of paper currencies. Economic policies that, together with the dismissal of the protectionist policy granted to the industries of the Reign of Naples, damaged the South, making the industrial activities to close down and reducing activity just to agriculture. Thus the difference North-South grew increasingly, being attributed to the Italian politicians, who did not let the South time enough to cope with the new realities.