An Economic History of Italy: From the Fall of the Empire to the Beginning of the 16th Century

by Luzzatto,Gino

• ISBN13: 9780415379236
• ISBN10: 0415379237
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book is the first to provide English readers with a brief and comprehensive survey of economic life in Italy during the period of its greatest splendour: the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The wealth of Renaissance Italy was the product of centuries of growth, and the great Renaissance cities, Venice, Milan and Florence, were first and foremost centres of international trade, which taught the rest of Europe the rudiments of modern business techniques. In a masterly synthesis, based upon a lifetime of study and research, Professor Gino Luzzatto, the greatest of living Italian historians, describes the main changes in Italian economic conditions from the end of the Roman Empire, when Italy ceased to be the centre of a European state, to the end of the Middle Ages when Italy lost the leadership of European trade and banking. The narrative chapters, which deal with barbarian Italy, feudal Italy and Italy in the age of the communes, are followed by a valuable analysis of medieval agriculture, industry,commerce and finance, in her principal Italian states. The range of discussion is wide and offers an excellent introduction to the economic history not only of Italy but of the whole Mediterranean region. This classic text was first published in 1961.

Table of Contents

The Last Two Centuries of the Western Empire	p. 1
Structural changes in the Empire during its first 250 years and their economic effects	p. 1
Competition from the provinces	p. 3
Depopulation and disaffection	p. 5
Military and monetary anarchy	p. 6
The reorganization of the Empire by Diocletian and Constantine. Oriental despotism	p. 9
The Germanic invasions and the fall of the western Empire	p. 11
From the Fall of the Western Empire to the Partition of Italy Between Greeks and Lombards	p. 14
Italy under the Ostrogoths	p. 14
The Italian economy during the Gothic Wars and the first years of Byzantine rule	p. 16
The Lombard invasion	p. 17
The partition of Italy between Greeks and Lombards	p. 19
The status of the vanquished Romans. The property of the Church	p. 20
From the Partition of Italy to the Carolingian Conquest (Seventh and Eighth Centuries)	p. 23
Lombard society in Rothari's Edict	p. 23
Signs of revival under the last Lombard kings. Towns and trade in the eighth century	p. 26
Elements of a money economy: trade and trades in Lombard Italy	p. 28
Byzantine Italy in the seventh and eighth centuries. The origins of Venice	p. 31
Economic Conditions in Carolingian and Feudal Italy	p. 36
Lombard Italy under the Carolingians	p. 36
New threats of invasion: Arabs, Hungarians, Slavs, and Normans	p. 38
The feudal system	p. 40
The economic nature of feudalism	p. 42
Beginnings of Revival in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries	p. 47
The cities of Byzantine Italy: Ravenna, Rome, Bari, Amalfi	p. 47
The rise of Venetian seapower between the ninth and eleventh centuries	p. 51
Pisa and Genoa in the tenth and eleventh centuries	p. 53
The revival of the inland towns	p. 55
The beginnings of change in the countryside	p. 61
Italy in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries	p. 66
Social changes after the tenth century and the rise of the urban communes	p. 66
The First Crusade and the maritime towns of Italy	p. 71
The Italian colonies in the Levant	p. 73
The western offensive in the Byzantine East	p. 76
Economic progress in the great inland communes and the development of the bourgeoisie	p. 79
Origin, character, and purpose of the craft and merchant guilds	p. 82
The Urban Economy in Its Prime. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries	p. 86
The expansion of the greater maritime cities after the Fourth Crusade	p. 86
Economic conditions in the greater communes of inland Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries	p. 91
Agriculture, industry, and trade in the age of the communes	p. 98
Finance, money, and credit in the age of the communes	p. 121
The Waning of the Middle Ages	p. 137
The changing place of Italy in Europe after 1350	p. 137
The great sea powers: Genoa and Venice	p. 146
Town and country in Lombardy and Tuscany	p. 155
The predominantly agricultural areas of Italy	p. 161
Bibliographical Note	p. 168
Index	p. 175
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