The Genoese nobility: Land, finance and business from restoration to the First World War

Abstract

The article analyzes the role played by the nobility in the modernization of Genoa, one of the poles of Italian economic development. After the Napoleonic era, in which the city suffered huge financial losses, a part of the aristocracy regained the ability to accumulate capital, thanks to urban income and to agrarian revenues. Since the fifties many nobles, in collaboration with the emerging middle class, took part in the renewal of city economy. Their contribution was significant in the modernization of infrastructure, bank and credit, while it was less relevant in industry, although the interest grew over time.

Keywords:

• Nobility
• Genoa
• elite entrepreneurship
• family business
• banking history
• Agrarian property management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roberto Tolaini

Roberto Tolaini is Adjunct Professor of Technology and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Mechanical, Energy, Management and Transportation Engineering at the University of Genoa, Italy. He has published several articles and books on agricultural and industrial history, especially on silk, and on contemporary business history. His publications include “La formazione di un banchiere. Per una biografia di Giacomo Filippo Durazzo Pallavicini (1848–1921), in Atti della Società ligure di storia patria, n.s. LIX, 2019, 167–249; Riposizionamento e ristrutturazione del gruppo negli anni ottanta. Priorità e vincoli (con M. Doria), in F. Silva [Ed.], Storia dell'IRI, 3, I difficili anni '70 e i tentativi di rilancio negli anni '80, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2013, pp. 281–364; La siderurgia in Liguria: da industria strategica a caso ambientale, in R. Pazzagli [Ed.], Il mondo a metà. Studi storici sul territorio e l'ambiente in onore di Giuliana Biagioli, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2013, pp. 337–352.