Uomini, merci e capitali nella Milano spagnola

While traditional historiography used to depict the economy of Spanish Milan (1535-1706) as shrinking and declining, recent studies have highlighted its features of dynamism and expansion. Archbishop Federico Borromeo had already emphasized how the wealth of the city was magnified by its constant circulation of goods and factors of production not only within the city and the state, but beyond its borders, yielding increasing marginal returns. Recent historiography has underlined how instead of representing an oppressive foreign government, the strategies of the Austrias mostly supported the interests of the local elites who pursued an economic practice characterized by free trade and an international scale. The major Milanese merchants played an active role in the long-distance trade routes throughout the continent, from London to Lisbon, from Danzig to Lyon, while the city’s bankers asserted themselves at the top of the European financial hierarchies and became an essential element in the supply circuits of the Spanish crown. At the same time Milan exerted a remarkable centripetal force as its large, profitable market attracted merchants and businessmen from both neighboring states and distant international centers.