The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan, 1886–1922

by Jonathan Morris

• ISBN13: 9780521893848
• ISBN10: 0521893844
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

From the mid–1880s a shopkeeper movement developed in Milan, centred around a shopkeeper newspaper, a federation of shopkeeper trade associations, and a shopkeeper bank. In 1904 shopkeeper representatives initiated a sequence of events that led to the fall of the first radical-socialist administration within the city. The author explains these events with reference to the business of shopkeeping itself. He analyses the trades, techniques, tax structure and topography of the Milanese retail sector, and traces the history of the contest between shops and cooperatives and the shopkeeper’s changing relationship with his employees and with his clientele. The final chapter confronts the crucial question of why the Milanese shopkeepers were to be found on the political right in the years leading up to the Fascist takeover. This is the first book to deal with any aspect of the Italian petite bourgeoisie.

Table of Contents

List of figures	x
List of tables	xii
Acknowledgements	xiv
Introduction: shopkeeping as a historical problem	1	(11)
The business of shopkeeping in Milan, 1859--1915	12	(24)
The context of shopkeeping: trades and techniques	36	(28)
The economic geography of shopkeeping: the role of the dazio consumo	64	(25)
The esercenti enter the political arena	89	(14)
Constructing the esercenti movement, 1886--1890	103	(18)
The esercenti and the depression, 1890--1897	121	(19)
Shopkeepers, cooperatives and the politics of privilege	140	(25)
Milan and the national small-business movement, 1886--1898	165	(11)
The allargamento debate, 1895--1897	176	(16)
The end-of-century crisis and the enlargement of the dazio belt	192	(15)
Shopkeeping in the new century	207	(18)
Labour relations and class politics	225	(13)
The esercenti and the centre-left administration, 1900--1905	238	(27)
Shopkeepers and Socialists 1905--1922	265	(20)
Conclusion: identity and autonomy	285	(8)
Bibliography	293	(11)
Index	304