The Lombard nobility’s loss of political power after the Napoleonic Wars has led economic historians to overlook the persisting role of traditional elites in social and economic life. The aim of the paper is to reassess the contribution of the Milanese aristocracy to Italian economic development, providing new insights into the business behaviour of the nobility in northern Italian areas. The article presents some new findings on noblemen’s investments and enterprises related to agriculture, manufacturing, trade and banking. The research focuses on the decades following Italian political unification, a period in which noblemen increased their interest in the financial sector and joint-stock companies (transport, banking, new sectors and industries) as a result of the transformations induced by the Industrial Revolution and the agrarian crisis of the 1870s and 1880s. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be used to assess not only the number of individuals involved and the capital they invested in new ventures, but also their role in orienting, stimulating, managing or supporting entrepreneurial activities and their openness to collaboration with the members of the middle class. The analysis combines the deeds produced by four notaries, chosen on the basis of their contiguity to the Milanese aristocracy, the foundation’s deeds of the main companies established in the city, conserved in the House of Trade, and the information provided by other local and national institutions. The cross-referencing of this data suggests that the Milanese nobility maintained a prominent economic role well beyond Italian political unification, contributing to the modernization of the national economy despite the weaknesses and contradictions that marked this process.

A rentier class? Milanese nobility and the economy in post-unification Italy / C. Brilli, S.A. Conca Messina. - In: EUROPEAN REVIEW OF HISTORY. - ISSN 1350-7486. - (2020), pp. 1-27. [10.1080/13507486.2020.1787354]

A rentier class? Milanese nobility and the economy in post-unification Italy

C. Brilli;S.A. Conca Messina
2020

Abstract

The Lombard nobility’s loss of political power after the Napoleonic Wars has led economic historians to overlook the persisting role of traditional elites in social and economic life. The aim of the paper is to reassess the contribution of the Milanese aristocracy to Italian economic development, providing new insights into the business behaviour of the nobility in northern Italian areas. The article presents some new findings on noblemen’s investments and enterprises related to agriculture, manufacturing, trade and banking. The research focuses on the decades following Italian political unification, a period in which noblemen increased their interest in the financial sector and joint-stock companies (transport, banking, new sectors and industries) as a result of the transformations induced by the Industrial Revolution and the agrarian crisis of the 1870s and 1880s. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be used to assess not only the number of individuals involved and the capital they invested in new ventures, but also their role in orienting, stimulating, managing or supporting entrepreneurial activities and their openness to collaboration with the members of the middle class. The analysis combines the deeds produced by four notaries, chosen on the basis of their contiguity to the Milanese aristocracy, the foundation’s deeds of the main companies established in the city, conserved in the House of Trade, and the information provided by other local and national institutions. The cross-referencing of this data suggests that the Milanese nobility maintained a prominent economic role well beyond Italian political unification, contributing to the modernization of the national economy despite the weaknesses and contradictions that marked this process.
gentlemanly capitalism; Italian aristocracy; manufacturing and banking in Lombardy; Milanese businessmen; nineteenth-century Italian economy
Settore SECS-P/12 - Storia Economica
Settore M-STO/02 - Storia Moderna
Settore M-STO/04 - Storia Contemporanea
   Il contributo della nobiltà allo sviluppo economico. Investimenti, capitali e networks nella Lombardia dell¿Ottocento
   FONDAZIONE CARIPLO
   2016-0994

   PIANO DI SOSTEGNO ALLA RICERCA 2015-2017 - TRANSITION GRANT LINEA 1B PROGETTO "UNIMI PER ERC STARTING E CONSOLIDATOR"
   UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO
2020
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/780754
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