Reciprocal relationship between politics and economics : the renewal of the 1926 treaty of Tirana

Abstract

The Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Co-operation signed by Italy and
Albania at Tirana on November 27, 1926, marked Italy’s first decisive step
towards fulfilling an old foreign policy ambition: political control over Albania;
it also marked the dawn of a new era in italian-Albanian relations, for it
removed all obstacles to a much broader Italian involvement in Albania’s
domestic affairs.
Given the importance of the 1926 Treaty for Italy’s policy, it was to be
expected that Italian diplomacy would do everything possible to ensure that it
was renewed, even before it officially expired in November 1931. The coincidence
of the question of the renewal or non-renewal of the 1926 Treaty with
that of granting a new loan to Albania made for a conjunction of circumstances
which was favourable to the Italians and which they could exploit in such a
way as to ensure that both worked out to their advantage.