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ABSTRACT
In 1788, the Tuscan intellectual Giovanni Maria Lampredi (1731–1793) published in Florence his most famous treatise, Del commercio dei popoli neutrali in tempo di guerra, conceived as a reply to his well-known opponent, Ferdinando Galiani. Since then, many scholars have claimed that Lampredi’s reflection upon neutral trade remains one of the most objective academic contributions on the subject. Furthermore, these interpretations have generally analysed Lampredi’s Del commercio without taking into account the context of the work or the author’s real political intents and intellectual goals. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a new interpretation of Lampredi’s ideas on trade and neutrality, demonstrating that, far from being impartial, his theories allow us to appreciate the intellectual dimension of the strategies formulated by European and Mediterranean small powers, such as Tuscany, to buttress their neutral policies and independence. In addition, Del commercio proposed an original conception of neutrality which urged Italian small states to pursue a more autonomous and profitable foreign and commercial policy, taking advantage of their sovereignty and neutral condition. Lampredi’s thought, then, requires us to reconsider the relationship between small powers and neutrality in eighteenth-century Europe.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Koen Staplebroek and Professor Antonella Alimento for reading the manuscript and giving me much precious advice.
Notes
1 See especially Neff, The Rights and Duties of Neutrals; Windler and Chanet, Les ressources des faibles; Alimento, War, Trade and Neutrality; the essays collected in Stapelbroek, War and Trade: The Neutrality of Commerce in the Inter-State System; Schnakenbourg, Entre la guerre et la paix; Alimento and Stapelbroek, The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century.
2 Stapelbroek, “The rights of Neutral Trade and its Forgotten History.”
3 On small states during the ancien régime, see Bazzoli, Il Piccolo Stato nell’Età Moderna; Raviola, L’Europa dei piccoli stati; Whatmore, “‘Neither masters nor slaves’”; Andreozzi, “Strategie Neutrali.”
4 The expression is drawn from Windler and Chanet, Les ressources des faibles.
5 For these opinions, see for instance Venturi, Utopia e riforma nell’illuminismo, 53; van Sas, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The Logic of Neutrality”; Kossman, Political Thought, 167–93.
6 Lampredi, Del commercio dei popoli neutrali.
7 See primarily Vidari, “Ferdinando Galiani, Giovanni Maria Lampredi e Domenico Alberto Azuni”; Miglio, La controversia; Sereni, The Italian Conception of International Law; Comanducci, Settecento conservatore, 274–83; Spagnesi, “The Trade of ‘Neutral Nations’ as Viewed by the Publicist Lampredi,” 107–28.
8 Miglio, La controversia, 200. But the idea mirrored the reception of Del commercio by its French translator Jacques Peuchet: see Lampredi, Du commerce des neutres en tems de guerre, Préface du traducteur, 5. Addobbati, “Una nuova lettura del Dei Doveri dei Principi Neutrali di Ferdinando Galiani,” shows the naivety of this interpretation.
9 Stone, The Genesis of the French Revolution, 117.
10 See Dull, The French Navy, 30–135. See also Vergennes to Louis XVI, 18 October 1776, reproduced in Hardman and Price, Louis XVI and the comte de Vergennes: correspondence, 1774–1787, 236–7.
11 See Stoker, Hagan, and McMaster, Strategy in the American War of Independence.
12 Two examples of these confiscations were reported by the Florentine newspaper Gazzetta Universale, no. 63 (August 1778) and no. 14 (February 1779). The expression “sea power” is drawn from Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power.
13 See Filippini, “La graduelle affirmation”; Franco Angiolini, “From Neutrality of the Port to the Neutrality of the State. Projects, Debates and Laws in Habsburg-Lorraine Tuscany,” 82–101.
14 The text of the edict can be read in Bandi, e ordini da osservarsi nel Granducato di Toscana, no. 51.
15 Angiolini, “From neutrality of the port,” 86–7.
16 Ibid., 83–6. See also Vattel, Droit des Gens, 1, 11; Hübner, De la Saisie 1, 221. On Vattel and Hübner, see Schnakenbourg, “From a right of war to a right of peace: Martin Hübner’s contribution to the reflection on neutrality in the eighteenth century,” 203–16; Trampus and Stapelbroek, The Legacy of Vattel’s Droit des Gens. Giuseppe Pierallini’s Osservazioni sopra la neutralità [Observations on neutrality], a key source for an understanding of the ideas behind the edict of 1778, are held by the Livorno State Archives, Civil and Military Government, 964, 218–39.
17 Kent, “The Historical Origins of the Three-Mile Limit.”
18 Addobbati, “Una nuova lettura,” 189.
19 See for instance Grotius, De iure belli ac pacis, 3, 1, 432; Hübner, De la Saise, 1, 192–6; Bouchaud, Théorie des traités, 258–9. On these debates, see Schnakenbourg, Entre la guerre et la paix, 103–11.
20 According to Filippo Bourbon del Monte, neutrality was “the most prolific source of our trade”: see Mangio and Frattarelli Fisher, Fonti per la storia di Livorno, 66. The datahowever, show a different state of things: see Jean-Pierre Filippini, “Grandeur et difficultés d’un port franc: Livourne (1676–1737),” 43.
21 Vattel, Droit des Gens, 2, 93. My italics.
22 Ibid.
23 See Antonio Trampus, “The Circulation of Vattel’s Droit des gens in Italy: The Doctrinal and Practical Model of Government,” 217–32; Trampus, “La traduzione toscana del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel (circa 1780).” On Vattel, see Nakhimovsky, “Vattel’s Theory of the International Order.”
24 On the free port of Livorno, see Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers; Tazzara, The Free Port of Livorno. See also D’Anglelo, “Mercanti inglesi a Livorno (1573–1796),” 356.
25 Tazzara, “Port of Trade or Commodity Market?”.
26 Filippini, Il porto di Livorno e la Toscana (1676–1814), 2, 215–44; Addobbati, Una nuova lettura, 204. On the commercial importance of Great Britain for the free port, see Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers, 102–31.
27 For a similar opinion, see Stapelbroek, “The Dutch Debate,” 131.
28 It has to be noted that none of the Italian states followed in Tuscany’s footsteps with regard to “passive neutral commerce.” On the League of Armed Neutrality, see Madariaga, Britain, Russia, and the Armed Neutrality of 1780.
29 On these interpretations, see Antonio Rotondò, “Giovanni Maria Lampredi e Francesco di fronte a radicalismo e riforme,” 17–47.
30 Ibid., 30.
31 For a general evaluation of Tuscan reformers and their relationship with Enlightenment ideas, see Diaz, I Lorena in Toscana, 175, 210; Reinert, Translating Empire, 253.
32 For an updated biography, see Vannini, “Lampredi, Giovanni Maria.”
33 Lampredi, Saggio sopra la filosofia degli antichi Etruschi; Lampredi, Opere inedite di Niccolò Machiavelli; Lampredi, Del Governo civile degli antichi toscani.
34 Bazzoli, Il pensiero politico dell’assolutismo illuminato, 81.
35 But see Reinert, “Lessons on the Rise and Fall of Great Powers.”
36 Lampredi served also as royal censor for the crown: see Timpanaro Morelli, Autori, stampatori, librai, 178.
37 Lampredi, De licentia in hostem […] De maiestate principis, 81–131. Significantly, the volume was dedicated to the Habsburg plenipotentiary in Milan, Carlo Firmian.
38 Lampredi, Juris publici universalis. In the preface, Lampredi explained that Leopold himself had commissioned the work. In the second edition of the Theoremata, the professor added a dedication to the Grand Duke.
39 Ibid., 1, 47–8.
40 Ibid., 1, 109–10. See Hume, Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, 400–8.
41 Lampredi, Theoremata, 1, 45–60, 192–202. See Locke, Two Treatises of Government; Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, 2, 347–8.
42 Lampredi, Theoremata, 1, 132–3. Lampredi had already criticised Helvétius’ remarks on the natural equality of men in Giornale de’ Letterati, no. 16 (1774), 205–45.
43 Lampredi, Theoremata, 2, 218–19. But Lampredi warned that a complete “alienation” of power might “easily” result in “abuse, damage, and ruin for the people.”
44 On Wolff’s influence on Lampredi, see Comanducci, Settecento conservatore, 208.
45 Lampredi, Theoremata, 2, 241–42. The sentence is almost the same as Montesquieu, L’esprit des lois, 2, 6. See also the memories of the Jacobin Filippo Buonarroti regarding Lampredi’s academic courses: Bernstein, Filippo Buonarroti, 17.
46 On Tuscan Enlightenment, see the essays in the recent Tazzara, Findlen, and Soll, Florence after the Medici.
47 Lampredi, Theoremata, 3, 90–4. See Mably, Droit Public de l’Europe, 1, v–viii.
48 Lampredi, Theoremata, 1, 89.
49 Ibid., 1, 93–4.
50 Ibid., 1, 219–98. See also Buondelmonti, Ragionamento sul diritto della guerra giusta.
51 Lampredi, De licentia in hostem […] De maiestate principis, 4–5, 60, 67–72. The work of von Cocceji contested by Lampredi is von Cocceji, Introductio ad Henrici L.B. de Cocceii Grotium illustratum, dissertatio nona.
52 Lampredi, Theoremata, 3, 92–3; Mirabeau, L’ami des hommes, 3, 407.
53 Hume, Essays, Of the Jealousy of Trade, 187. See Hont, Jealousy of Trade.
54 In this regard, I agree with Reinert, “‘A Sublimely Stupid Idea.’” On the “myth” of Peter Leopold and his actual reform “process”, see Mirri, Riflessioni su Toscana e Francia, 117–33, 143–4. On the Tuscan reformers, such as Francesco Maria Gianni, who insisted upon the importance of manufactures, see Becagli, Un unico territorio gabellabile.
55 Lampredi, Theoremata, 3, 24–5. See Cary, Storia del commercio della Gran Bretagna, translated by Antonio Genovesi, Ragionamento sul commercio universal di Antonio Genovesi, lxxxii–viii; Genovesi, Lezioni di commercio, 1, 246–62. It is worth observing that Genovesi is the only economist explicitly mentioned by Lampredi.
56 Alimento, “La concurrence comme politique modern.” On the penetration of these economic ideas in Tuscany, see Alimento, “Tra ‘gelosie’ personali e ‘gelosie’ tra gli stati”; Alimento, “Introduzione,” ix–xlii.
57 Diaz, I Lorena in Toscana, 189.
58 Lampredi, Theoremata, 3, 234–5. For Lampredi, the territory of a neutral state could be indifferently called “neutral” or “peaceful.”
59 Ibid., 3, 236–7.
60 Ibid., 3, 238.
61 Ibid.
62 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 101–2. Galiani and Lampredi probably met each other during Lampredi’s journey to Naples in 1778 with John Acton. See Tanucci, Bernardo Tanucci ed il suo più importante carteggio, 502–3.
63 Galiani, De’ doveri. See also the introduction by Luciano Guerci in Galiani, Opere di Ferdinando Galiani, 645–50.
64 See Diaz, “L’abate Galiani.” On Neapolitan trade and institutions, see Salvemini, “The Arrogance of the Market”; Zaugg, Stranieri di antico regime. On the Neapolitan Enlightenment, see Venturi, Settecento riformatore, vols. 1, 2 and 5; Robertson, The Case for the Enlightenment.
65 The opposite opinion of Addobbati, Una nuova lettura, 218–19, seems reductive.
66 See Monti, La dottrina dell’abate Ferdinando Galiani; Diaz, L’abate Galiani, 305–6; Stapelbroek, “The Progress of Humankind.”
67 Galiani, De’ doveri, 1, iii.
68 On Galiani’s contribution to the 1787 Neapolitan-Russian commercial treaty, see Diaz, “L’abate Galiani,” 317–20.
69 See Amodio, Il disincanto della ragione, 221–8, 308–24.
70 Stapelbroek, “The Progress of Humankind,” 181. Significantly, a new edition of Della moneta had come out in 1780.
71 Galiani to Friedrich Melchior Grimm, 9 December 1780. See Galiani, Opere, 645.
72 Galiani, De’ doveri, 1, 12.
73 Ibid., 1, 149.
74 Ibid., 1, 7–8.
75 Ibid., 1, 57. On Galianean love and self-deceit, see Stapelbroek, Love, Self-Deceit, and Money.
76 Galiani, De’ doveri, 1, 9.
77 Ibid., 1, 338. My italics. The Theoremata was published again the same year as De’ doveri.
78 Galiani, De’ doveri, 1, 318. My italics.
79 Ibid., 1, 338–42.
80 Ibid., 1, 318.
81 Tazzara, “Managing Free Trade,” 496–7, 528. On the Neapolitan foreign policy and position in the Mediterranean, see Maiorini, “Neapolitan diplomacy in the eighteenth century”; Rao, “Napoli e il Mediterraneo nel Settecento. Frontiera d’Europa.”
82 Azuni, Dizionario Universale, 3, 167.
83 See the review of De’ doveri attributable to him published in Giornale de’ Letterati, no. 52 (1783), 104–8. See also Biblioteca Estense Universitaria di Moderna, Autografoteca Campori, Lampredi to the abbot Giuseppe Spina, 3 July 1784.
84 Lampredi, Parecer sobre la presa de la Fragata La Teti. On the case of the frigate Thetis, see Addobbati, “The Capture of the Thetis: A Cause Célèbre at the Madrid Council of War (1780–1788),” 146–59.
85 Lampredi to Spina, 21 June 1788, reproduced in Comanducci, “Giovanni Maria Lampredi,” 527–8.
86 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 150.
87 Lampredi to Spina, 21 June 1788, in Comanducci, “Giovanni Maria Lampredi,” 528.
88 On emulation in the eighteenth century, see Reinert, Translating Empire, 29–71.
89 The year before Del commercio, though, the professor had had quarrels with Peter Leopold over the Grand Duke’s Jansenist inclinations. See Rosa, Ribelli e riformatori nel ’700 italiano, 203; Lampredi to Spina, 15 May 1789, in Comanducci, “Giovanni Maria Lampredi,” 547. Could Del commercio have also been an attempt to reconcile with Leopold?
90 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 11.
91 Ibid., 1, 18–19. See Montesquieu, L’esprit des lois, 20, 275, and, before him, Melon, Essai politique sur le commerce, 79. On Montesquieu’s “doux commerce,” see Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests; Schnakenbourg, Entre la guerre et la paix, 248–51; Larrère, ‘Montesquieu et le “doux commerce.’”
92 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 40.
93 Ibid., 1, 27.
94 Ibid., 1, 19–21.
95 Ibid., 1, 61, 128. On page 116, Lampredi also eulogised the “illustrious and intelligent Minister of France” for the 1778 Règlement. Starting from the idea of the universal sociability of humankind, Hübner subordinated the prerogatives of the belligerents to the necessity of preserving the natural condition of peace between states. This implied that, on the one hand, power politics and national self-interest and sovereignty had to give in to the cosmopolitan principles of natural law, and that, on the other, the neutrals, being friends of peace and civilising trade, had to maintain their shipping and commerce in war as in peacetime (but refraining from anything that might prolong the conflict). See Schnakenbourg, “From a Right to War,” 211–13.
96 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 36.
97 See Toyoda, Theory and Politics, 161–90; Trampus, “Dalla libertà religiosa allo Stato nazione,” 112–13. On Lampredi and Vattel, see Fiocchi Malaspina, L’eterno ritorno del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel, 131–37.
98 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 32–3.
99 Ibid., 1, 41–2.
100 Mably, Droit Public de l’Europe, 1, iv–v; Vattel, Droit des Gens, 2, 81–2. On the matter, see Schnakenbourg, “The Conditions of Trade in Wartime,” which, however, does not mention Lampredi.
101 Lampredi, Del commercio, 2, 1.
102 Ibid., 1, 33–4. See Hübner, De la Saisie, 1, 126; Toze, La liberté de la navigation et du commerce neutres, 111–23.
103 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 36.
104 Ibid.
105 Ibid., 1, 107.
106 Bélissa, “Les lumières contre la guerre de course (1763–1795),” 122–4.
107 Bouchaud, Théorie des traités, 365–7. Like Great Britain, Bouchaud followed the rules of the “Consulate at Sea.”
108 Lampredi, Del commercio, 1, 128–9, 135.
109 Ibid., 1, 83–116.
110 Ibid., 1, 94–5.
111 Ibid., 1, 98–9.
112 Ibid., 1, 102.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Giulio Talini
Giulio Talini is a PhD student at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale, University of Naples Federico II (programme in Global History and Governance). He is most interested in the intellectual and political history of the long eighteenth century, the global history of European empires, the history of early modern Italian small states, and the history of trade. He is also a member of the group working on the complete edition of the writings of the abbé de Saint-Pierre (ed. Carole Dornier, Université de Caen Normandie). He published an article on Saint-Pierre in the journal History of European Ideas and another one is about to be published in the journal Rivista Storica Italiana.