Current debates on austerity often forget that these policies are almost a hundred years old. This article explores how the combination of austerity and technocracy acted as a powerful tool to secure the compliance of European countries with socio‐economic stabilization after the First World War. Austerity emerged as an economic, moral, and technocratic message as economic experts sought to educate restless post‐war civil society. The article analyses primary austerity documents from the international economic conferences of Brussels (1920) and Genoa (1922). In addition, I use a case study of Italy (1922–1925) to show how austerity succeeded under the first years of Fascism, when the government authorized prominent economics professors to implement the international financial codes devised at Brussels and Genoa. I also consider the scientific writings of De Stefani, Ricci, and Pantaleoni in order to examine the theoretical roots of the technocratic nature of austerity.