Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:23:02.643Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic policy and development in Austrian Lombardy, 1815–1859∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

Rupert Pichler
Rupert Pichler*
Affiliation:
Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Rengasse 5, A1010 Vienna. Telephone: + 43-1-53464-3205. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The question of economic integration is not new in Europe. Historically, the birth and construction of nation-states was important in stimulating interest in the systematic relationships between political and economic integration. In the case of the multinational structure of the Habsburg monarchy in the nineteenth century, the result was an economic policy that, for political reasons, aimed to unite the material interests of a state that was completely heterogeneous in other respects. Lombardy was a case in point. Traditionally the region had been in the economic vanguard in central Europe. When it again became part of Austria in 1815 it also became subject to the imperial policy of political integration. As a result its economic priorities were partially reformulated. On the one hand, Austria had a protectionist system aimed at autarky which made incentives to industrial production a priority. Lombardy's purely mercantilist outlook, on the other hand, was based around the production of a few highly specialized goods, most notably silk, for export. Conflict between economic interests in Lombardy was the inevitable result. Nevertheless, the imperial government had to take account of the fact that it was impossible to restrict Lombardy's international trade relations exclusively to the Austrian market. And the problems that beset any effort to tie the Lombard economy into a denser network of relationships with the Austrian market were not due to the political formation of the Italian nation because Northern Italy, and Lombardy in particular, continued to occupy an anomalous position within the context of the Italian economy.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , May 2001 , pp. 35 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. For a discussion of these processes see, for example, Gellner, E., Nations and Nationalism, Blackwell, Oxford, 1983.Google Scholar

2. For the importance of this approach see Anderson, B., Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, London, 1991.Google Scholar

3. It is significant that chambers of commerce were introduced as non-feudal bodies representative of economic interests in Habsburg Lombardy in 1786. They also functioned effectively in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia in the Restoration. However, they were not introduced into the Hereditary Lands until 1850.Google Scholar

4. For eighteenth-century reforms see Capra, C., ‘Il Settecento’, in Capra, C. and Sella, D. (eds), Il Ducato di Milano dal 1535 al 1796, UTET, Turin, 1984; Capra, and Sella, , La Lombardia austriaca nell'età delle riforme 1706–1796, Turin, 1987 and Mozarelli, C., Sovrano, società e amministrazione locale nella Lombardia teresiana (1749–1758), Il Mulino, Bologna, 1982.Google Scholar

5. The fullest treatment of the restructuring of the Habsburg administration in the aftermath of Napoleon is Meriggi, M., Amministrazione e classi sociali nel Lombardo-Veneto (1814–1848), Il Mulino, Bologna, 1983.Google Scholar

6. On Habsburg economic development in the nineteenth century see Gross, N.T., ‘The industrial revolution in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750–1914’, in Cipolla, C.M. (ed.), The Fontana Economic History of Europe, vol. 4, i, The Emergence of Industrial Societies, Fontana/Collins, London, 1972, pp. 228–78; Rudolph, R., ‘The pattern of industrial growth from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century’, The Austrian History Year Book, 9, 1975, pp. 3–43; Huertas, T.F., Economic Growth and Economic Policy in a Multinational Setting: the Habsburg Monarchy 1841–1866, Arno Press, New York, 1977; Good, D.F., The Economic Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1750–1914, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984; Good, ‘The economic lag of central and eastern Europe: income estimates for the Habsburg successor states, 1870–1910’, Journal of Economic History, 54, 1994, pp. 869–91; Komlos, J., The Habsburg Monarchy as a Customs Union: Economic Development in Austria-Hungary in the Nineteenth Century, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1983. For a survey of literature on this subject see Schulze, M.-S., ‘Economic development in the nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire’, Austrian History Year Book, 28, 1997, pp. 293–307.Google Scholar

7. For an example of the commonly held view that the processes of creating nation states and industrialization are intimately linked see Cole, J.W., ‘Culture and economy in peripheral Europe’, Ethnologia Europea, 15, 1985, pp. 3–26.Google Scholar

8. See, for example, Baltzareck, F., ‘Zu den regionalen Ansätzen der frühen Industrialisierung in Europa’, in Knittler, H. (ed.), Wirtschafts- und sozialhistorische Beitràge. Festschrift für Alfred Hoffmann zum 75. Geburtstag, Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna, 1979, pp. 334–55.Google Scholar

9. Good, , The Economic Rise, pp. 241–5.Google Scholar

10. Good, D.F., ‘Austria-Hungary ’, in Sylla, R. and Toniolo, G. (eds) Patterns of European Industrialization. The Nineteenth Century, Routledge, London and New York, 1991, p. 235. In this instance Good is using ‘national boundaries’ to refer to the political frontiers of sovereign states rather than those of ‘linguistic nations’.Google Scholar

11. Recent research puts the lie to the notion of deliberate exploitation on the part of the Habsburgs. Komlos, for example, concludes that ‘there was absolutely no evidence at all that Hungary was exploited by Austria’, The Habsburg Monarchy as a Customs Union, p. 215.Google Scholar

12. For good surveys of Italian economy after unification see Toniolo, G., An Economic History of Liberal Italy, Routledge, London, 1990 and Zamagni, V., Dalla periferia al centro. La seconda rinascita economica dell'Italia 1861–1981, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1990.Google Scholar

13. Mori, G., ‘The genesis of Italian industrialization’, Journal of European Economic History, 4, 1975, p. 79.Google Scholar

14. Cafagna, L., ‘Italy 1830–1914’, in Cipolla, C.M. (ed.), The Fontana Economic History of Europe, vol. 4, i, The Emergence of Industrial Societies, Fontana, London, 1972, pp. 279–328.Google Scholar

15. Cafagna, L., ‘Introduzione’, in Cafagna, L., Dualismo e sviluppo nella storia d'Italia, Marsilio, Padua, 1989, p. xxvii.Google Scholar

16. Cafagna, L., ‘I modelli interpretativi della storiografia’, in Cafagna, L. Dualismo e sviluppo, p. 399.Google Scholar

17. Caracciolo, A., ‘La storia economica’, in Romano, R. and Vivanti, C. (eds), Storia d'Italia, 3, Dal primo Settecento all'Unità , Einaudi, Turin, 1973, p. 511.Google Scholar

18. Mokyr, J., ‘And thou, happy Austria? A review essay’, Journal of Economic History, 44, 1984, pp. 1094–9, p. 1098.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. Gerschenkron, A., Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1962, p. 354, and Gerschenkron, , An Economic Spurt that Failed, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1977, pp. 47–50; Gross, , ‘The industrial revolution in the Habsburg Monarchy’; Good, , ‘Austria-Hungary’, pp. 229–32.Google Scholar

20. Zamagni, , Dalla periferia, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

21. Carera, A. ‘I limiti del tentato decollo dopo il ritorno degli austriaci’, in Storia dell'industria lombarda, 1, Dal settecento all'unità politica. Un sistema manufatturiero aperto al mercato, Milan, 1988, p. 202.Google Scholar

22. For the economic history of Lombardy in this period see Caizzi, B., L'economia lombarda durante la Restaurazione (1814–1859), Comit, Milan, 1972; Dalmasso, E., Milano capitale economica d'Italia, Milan, 1972; Borruso, E., ‘Evoluzione economica della Lombardia negli anni dell'unificazione italiana’, Quaderni storici, 11, 1976, pp. 515–46; Romani, M, Aspetti e problemi di storia economica lombarda nei secoli XVIII e XIX. Scritti riediti in memoria, Milan, 1977; Zaninelli, S. (ed.), Storia dell'industria lombarda, il Polifilo, Milan, 1988–92, 3 vols. On the Lombard cotton industry see Zaninelli, S., ‘L'industria del cotone in Lombardia dalla fine del Settecento alla unificazione del paese’, Archivio economica dell'Unificazione italiana, ser. 2, 15, Turin, 1967, and Romano, R., La modernazzazione periferica. L'Alto Milanese e la formazione di una società industriale 1750–1914, FrancoAngeli, Milan, 1990. For silk production see Angeli, S., Proprietari, commercianti e filandieri a Milano nel primo Ottocento. Il mercato delle sete, FrancoAngeli, Milan, 1982. For the issue of protoindustrialization see Dewerpe, A., L'industrie aux champs. Essai sur la protoindustrialisation en Italie du Nord (1800–1880), Rome, 1985. Still one of the best introductions to Lombard economic history for the anglophone reader is Greenfield, K.R., Economics and Liberalism in the Risorgimento. A Study of Nationalism in Lombardy, 1814–1848, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD, 1965 (first published 1934).Google Scholar

23. A study of Lombardy's entrepreneurial activity is Levari, S., La nobiltà del lavoro. Negozianti e banchieri a Milano tra ancien régime e restaurazione, FrancoAngeli, Milan, 1997.Google Scholar

24. See for example, Bianchi-Giovini, A., L'Austria in Italia e le sue confische. Il conte di Fiquelmont e le sue confessioni, Turin, 1853; Correnti, C., L'Austria e la Lombardia, no place of publication, 1847; Sandonà, A., Il Regno Lombardo-Veneto 1814–1859. La costituzione e l'amministrazione , Cogliati, L.F., Milan, 1912 Google Scholar

25. The first railway in Lombardy was the economically insignificant Milan–Monza line opened in 1832.Google Scholar

26. Hoppner to Castlereagh, Venice, 18 October 1817, PRO, FO7 137.Google Scholar

27. For the mechanisms of the silk market see Angeli, , Proprietari and Angelo Moioli, ‘Il commercio serico lombardo nella prima metà dell'Ottocento’, in Cavaciocchi, Simonetta (ed.), La seta in Europa sec. XIII–XX, Le Monnier, Florence, 1993, pp. 723–39.Google Scholar

28. De Maddalena, A., Prezzi e mercedi a Milano dal 1701 al 1860, Milan, 1974, p. 394.Google Scholar

29. Angeli, , Proprietari, p. 77.Google Scholar

30. Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft, pp. 125–6. According to the respective sources (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Finanzarchiv Präsidium) this was a decision of the central government while the local authorities' opinions were contradictory. The eventual decision was based on considerations about how to stimulate the future potential of the silk sector to generate further tax income.Google Scholar

31. Angeli, , Proprietari, p. 77 Google Scholar

32. Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft, p. 151. Again this was a decision of the central government after having received contradictory signals from Lombardy. In that context see for the aspect of technical innovation Roberto Tolaini, ‘Cambiamenti tecnologici nell'industria serica: la trattura nella prima metà dell'ottocento. Casi e problemi’, Società e Storia, 17, 1994, pp. 741–809.Google Scholar

33. Glazier, I.A., ‘Il commercio estero del Regno Lombardo-Veneto dal 1815 al 1865’, in Archivio economico dell'unificazione italiana, ser.1, 15, Rome, 1966, p. 3.Google Scholar

34. Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft, p. 287, based on the data supplied by the Tafeln zur Statistik der österreichischen Monarchie, Table ‘Zoll-Gefäll’.Google Scholar

35. Both quotes from Greenfield, , Economics and Liberalism, p. 267.Google Scholar

36. Greenfield, , Economics and Liberalism. See also La Salvia, S., Giornalismo lombardo: gli ‘Annali universali di statistica’ (1824–1844), Rome, 1977; Hunecke, V., ‘Cultura liberale e industrialismo nell'Italia dell'Ottocento’, Studi storici, 18, 1977, pp. 23–32. For the text that did most to launch the debate see Gioia, M., Sidle manifatture nazionali e tariffe daziarie. Discorso popolare, Milan, 1819.Google Scholar

37. For this, an excellent account still remains John Rath, R., The Provisional Austrian Regime in Lombardy-Venetia 1814–1815, University of Texas Press, Austin and London, 1969. For a fuller discussion see Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft , pp. 86–122.Google Scholar

38. Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft, pp. 140–63. The research is almost exclusively based on material in the Archivio di Stato di Milano and the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Hofkammerarchiv and Finanzarchiv).Google Scholar

39. Archivio di Stato di Milano and the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Hofkammerarchiv and Finanzarchiv).Google Scholar

40. For the following account see also Pichler, R., ‘Politica commerciale, economia e rapporti di vicinato tra l'Italia e la monarchia asburgica, 1815–1914’, Società e Storia, 20, 1997, pp. 48–85. Again, the research is largely based on archive sources (Archivio di Stato di Milano and Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv)).Google Scholar

41. The issue of banking and industrial development in Lombardy is most comprehensively discussed by Levati, La nobiltà del lavoro.Google Scholar

42. The most comprehensive analysis of railway building in Lombardy is A. Bernardello, La prima ferrovia fra Venezia e Milano: storia della imperial-regia privilegiata strada ferrata ferdinandea lombardo-veneta (1835–1852), Venice, 1996. Since it covers only the period of private ownership this work does not deal with the interesting period of neoabsolutist rule. For the latter see Pichler, , Die Wirtschaft, pp. 247–63.Google Scholar

43. For an explanation of this techniques see Crafts, N.F.R., ‘Gross national product in Europe 1870–1910: some new estimates’, in Explorations in Economic History, 20, 1983, pp. 387. Crafts used this approach to estimate income for countries where the data for the national income accounting method is poor, employing a sample of countries with good income estimates as the dependent variable in the regression. The technique was also employed by Good, ‘The economic lag’. Yet it did generate intense debate: see Pammer, Michael, ‘Proxy data and income estimates: the economic lag of Central and Eastern Europe’, Journal of Economic History, 57, 1997, pp. 448–55; Good, D. F., ‘Proxy data and income estimates: reply to Pammer’, Journal of Economic History, 57, 1997, pp. 456–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. See, for example, Zaninelli, , ‘L'industria del cotone’, p. xv.Google Scholar