L'Archivio storico del Ceris. Raccolta di bilanci cartacei delle principali società italiane e straniere

The report describes the historical archive of balance sheets, located at the Ceris - Institute of Economic Research on Firms and Growth (Moncalieri, Torino, Italy), institute within the Italian National Research Council. The archive collects almost 22,000 annual reports of 1,436 Italian and foreign firms starting in the early years of the past century and in a systematic way since 1956. The oldest document is an annual report by FIAT, dated 1927. In 1993 the competence over the registration of the balance sheets of Italian firms moved from the registrar's office (Cancellerie del Tribunale) to the different Chambers of Commerce. The archives ahead of 1993 were generally physically lost, with few exceptions in the Milan Chamber of Commerce. Our archive represents therefore a valuable source for researchers and students in economic history of enterprises.