Agriculture and nobility in Lombardy. Land, management and innovation (1815-1861)

Abstract

This article aims to reassess the contribution of the nobility in the nineteenth-century economic transformation of Lombardy in northern Italy, focusing on its role in agricultural development. Relying on ongoing archival research into thousands of documents such as correspondence, notarial deeds, probate records, accounting books, the article attempts to demonstrate that noblemen acted in an entrepreneurial manner, supported the progress of techniques and innovation, and played a leading role in the modernisation of the sector. The article reconsiders the contribution of noble families both to the enhancement and management of their lands and to the elaboration and application of agricultural innovation.

Keywords:

• Agriculture
• nobility
• land
• management
• innovation
• Lombardy
• Italy

Disclosure statement

Silvia A. Conca Messina authored the Introduction and section 1 (Land, improvements and management); Catia Brilli wrote section 2 (Innovation and Institutions) and the Conclusion.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by Fondazione Cariplo and Regione Lombardia (project 2016-0994 ledby Silvia A. Conca Messina) and by the University of Milan (Transition Grant 2015-2017 - Horizon 2020 - Linea 1B. Progetto “Unimi per ERC Starting e Consolidator” led by Silvia A. Conca Messina).

Notes on contributors

Silvia A. Conca Messina

Silvia A. Conca Messina is Assistant Professor in Economic History in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Milan “La Statale”, where she teaches Economy and Economic Policies History and Economy and History of Globalisation. She has published widely on Economic History and Business History in Italy and Europe from early-modern to modern age. Her recent publications include Cotton Enterprises: Networks and Strategies. Lombardy in the Industrial Revolution, 1815–1860, Routledge, 2016 and A History of States and Economic Policies in Early Modern Europe, Routledge, 2019. She is co-editor (with S. Le Bras, P. Tedeschi, M. Vaquero Piñeiro) of A History of Wine in Europe. 19th to 20th Centuries, 2 voll., Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Catia Brilli

Catia Brilli is research fellow at the University of Milan and teaching fellow of Economic History at Bocconi University. She is the author of Genoese Trade and Migration in the Spanish Atlantic, 1700-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and has written extensively on merchant communities and long-distance trade in the early modern period.