International networks in Milan in the Napoleonic Age

ABSTRACT As Napoleon swept up the Continent, European societies faced alter-native paths of modernization depending on thé elite capable of directing the change. In Lombardy, a region deprived of an own nation state and of independence, the only viable way to modernization was that of eco-nomic changes guided by the mercantilé elite. Not a nobility based on political participation, patriotism and civil rights but a nobility of work could substitute in Lombardy ancien régime values. Attracted, as Napoleon soldiers, by the richness and the entrepreneurial opportunities of northern Italy, many merchants crossed the Alps to set-tle down in Lombardy. They didn't bring warfare or pillages along them. Through their international networks they channelled into Lombardy capi-tal, skilled workers and entrepreneurial capabilities. But their influence on the Italian region was not limited to manufacturing, organizational or fi-nancial innovation. Through their economic and social ascent an example was set as to how, through hard work, economic if not political indepen-dence could be achieved. Even governments respected this wealth elite, being dependent on their availability to finance their growing public debt, on their intermediation to supply the necessary wares in a specializing and globalised Europe, and on their capability to employ the population in new manufactures. The reforms to make thi elite politically repre-sented were not unique to the French government. The Austrian rule that preceded and followed Napoleon in Lombardy went the same path. Such political recognition reinforced the influence of the cosmopolitan merchan elite on Lombardy's intellectuals and nobility. Around it rapidly coalesced a social grouping prone to innovation, liberalism, religious tolerance and favourable to federative aggregations. Beginning with the Napoleonic age such aggregation was capable of directing Lombardy's modernization well before Italy's political independence.