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The Fosfati archives
Les archives de la Société égyptienne des phosphates
p. 202-203
Texte intégral
Figure 1: SEF headquarters in Kosseir, c. 1935

Source: Pellegrini archives, Belluno
1The archives of the Egyptian Phosphates Company are not and have never been comprehensive, due to the continuous changes in the company structure. Each administration produced its own set of documents, and the materials have rarely been reorganized and inventoried.
2So far, our research has enabled us to identify the various company offices still maintaining valuable archives. Most of the collection is stored by Società Fosfati administrative departments, now dispersed in various locations in both Italy and Egypt. There are also the personal and professional archives of individuals (such as managers, architects, and others) and specific collections stored in archives of public officials, institutions, and agencies delivering permits and authorizations.
3The administrative Archives of the Società Egiziana per l’Estrazione e il Commercio dei Fosfati is a part of the Historical Archives of Banco di Roma (Bank of Rome), and are conserved at the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà. However, restoration work on this building necessitated the temporary removal of the archives elsewhere, and not all collections are accessible. The material related to Fosfati, hitherto unstudied, can be divided into more than forty subgroups. They have never been filed together as a single collection: the documents are scattered according to accounting heading or the department in charge. Papers cover the period between 1900 and 1961, which we have divided into three periods. The first, 1900-1912, documents the Banco di Roma’s participation in the phosphate business through its subsidiaries. The second, from 1912 to 1927, covers Banco di Roma’s ownership of Fosfati. The third, 1927-1961, documents Fosfati’s control by the Italian state via IRL1 and the Institute of Liquidation, which administered Fosfati’s nationalization and its later sale to the Egyptian Government. The archives also store correspondence related to financing granted to the Marconi Company in 1908, in order to establish a radiotelegraph station in Kosseir.
4The IRI archives became the property of the IRI Foundation, set up when the IRI was closed. They contain the documents produced during the regular audits of Società Egiziana Fosfati (SEF) accounts. Covering the period between 1933 and the company’s transfer to the Egyptian Government in 1961,2 they are currently being digitized in preparation for their inclusion in the Italian Central State Archives database. The body of materials related to Fosfati is considerable, both in the Archivio Generale Pratiche Societarie - Numerazione Rossa (General Archives of Company Business – Red Notation), which are considered to be the official archives of the Institute, and in the Archivio II - Numerazione Nera (Archives II – Black Notation), consisting of branch office files. A valuable collection of visual materials contains pictures of supplies imported from Italy (pumps, turbines, generators, etc.) and maps of the mines. On the contrary, blueprints and plans for the construction works carried out in Kosseir are rare or missing; most of the records extant are accounting documents and inventories.
5During the research, we were able to study the personal archives of Pellegrino Pellegrini, a teacher at the elementary school in Kosseir between 1931 and 1958, who was also a representative of the Italian Consul in Port Said and a secretary of the PNF (Partito Nazionale Fascista) in Kosseir. The archives, which are a sort of great diary on Africa, were preserved and enriched by Mr. Pelligrini’s son Ildo, as a record of the lives of immigrants from the Agordo region to Egypt.3
6Furthermore, it was possible to study the professional archives of Fosfati’s manager, Riccardo Decima,4 who worked in Kosseir between 1921 and 1939. They contain drawings of mines, progress reports (on mining and construction works), estimates, correspondence, and photographs. The blueprints for the church built at Kosseir, however, are missing.5
7We have also begun to probe the archives of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches6 for documents regarding Kosseir. Further information may emerge in sources conserved by the Archives of the Franciscan Province of Egypt.
8A preliminary survey carried out at the Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome has identified some interesting materials related to the Italian Embassy and Italian Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, which are worthy of further examination. The files analyzed thus far are devoid of pictures, but contain correspondence that facilitates our comprehension of the events.7
Notes de bas de page
1 The IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) was established on January 24, 1933 as a temporary public authority, to deal with a serious financial and industrial crisis centering on Italy’s three major banks: Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banco di Roma, and Credito Italiano) caused by the revaluation of the Lira (1927) and Wall Street’s collapse (1929). The Institute took over the banks, restructured them, and reorganized their stakes in company equity, by separating retail banks from investment banks. Having survived Fascism, it was one of the major engines of postwar reconstruction and development of the country, until the 1970s. It was closed in 2000.
2 The sale of the company to the United Arab Republic was not settled until 1971. A share of SEF remained Italian (50%) and was absorbed by Sofin in 1968; capital gains were recorded in IRI’s accounts until 1985.
3 Ildo Pellegrini (posthumous), Agordini a Kosseir. Storia di una comunità nelle miniere di fosfati in Egitto, Feltre: Agorà, 2011.
4 Many thanks to Renza Maroso Pellegrini for this information. Decima arrived in Kosseir in 1921. Expert in mining, he graduated from the school of Agordo and studied construction engineering with Bibolini, a professor at Politecnico di Torino. See entry in Chi è? Dizionario degli italiani d’oggi, Rome: Formiggini, 1936.
5 The lost drawing for the gable of Kosseir’s church is published in Centenario dell’Istituto tecnico Minerario, Agordo 1867-1967, Agordo: Comitato per le celebrazioni centenarie, 1967, p. 97.
6 The documents related to the authorizations for the construction of Kosseir’s church were stored among the files of Propaganda Fide, Fondo Copti 1480/28. The correspondence started in 1928, ten years before the construction of the church. The correspondence between the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, the Apostolic Delegate, and the Franciscan Vicar General surrounds issues related to ownership of the building by the Catholic rather than the Coptic Church, which had jurisdiction over the area. The matter was resolved with a complicated use agreement.
7 The archives contain: Poste e telegrafi, no. 133, Società Marconi, 1912, file 1, p. 15-18. In the section of commercial affairs: Radiocollegamento Italia-Egitto, 1924-26, p. 18/1 -18/5 and Fosfati in Egitto, no. 4, 1919-1923. In the section Cairo Embassy: Trasporto di fosfati (Istanza Banco di Roma ), no. 155, 1916, f. 7, p. T; Missione Francescana di Kosseir, n° 237, 1930, file 22, p. A/54; Fascismo Kosseir, n° 265, 1932, file 5, Stampa/5; Ferrovia Kosseir, 261, 1932, p. B/7; Forniture Tosi, no. 313, 1938, file 4, p. B/7. The drawings concerning Kosseir’s school, in ASMAE, Fondo disegni architettonici inediti, p. Egitto, coll. prov., founded by M. C. Migliaccio, are published in Ezio Godoli, Milva Giacomelli, Architetti e ingegneri italiani dal Levante al Magreb 1848-1945, Florence: Maschietto, 2005, p. 163.
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