The foreign elite. A port city in the second half of the 18th century: the case of Tuscany's The article examines the ways in which elite foreign traders were able to establish themselves as new members of the local oligarchies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with a focus on the port city of Livorno. The second half of the 18th century witnessed a change within the Grand Duchy’s ruling dynasty that brought with it many radical reforms. The government introduced important new procedures for what concerned the assimilation of foreigners, including legislative measures that often threatened both previously established practice and integration strategies that had been consolidated over decades. Such measures were aimed at re-establishing full state authority, yet they were met with much resistance: on the one hand, there were the local magistracies, which recognized that their cities thrived on the foreigners themselves, and that that was to be defended; on the other hand, there was the difficulty of unequivocally identifying individuals who were not always classifiable as belonging exclusively to any given jurisdiction.
Il saggio ripercorre i meccanismi che consentirono alle élites dei commercianti stranieri del granducato di Toscana e, in particolare, della città portuale di Livorno, di affermarsi quali nuovi membri delle oligarchie locali. Nel corso del secondo Settecento, a seguito di un cambiamento dinastico che fu all’origine di un profondo movimento riformista, il governo granducale introdusse importanti novità rispetto alle modalità con le quali rendere possibile questi processi di assimilazione, anche attraverso misure legislative che misero spesso in crisi prassi precedentemente vigenti e strategie d’integrazione consolidatesi da decenni. Questi interventi, che miravano a ristabilire una piena autorità statuale, si trovarono a dover gestire un elevato grado di resistenza, da un lato da parte delle magistrature locali ertesi a difendere la specificità di un luogo che traeva dagli stranieri la propria ragion d’essere, dall’altro dalla difficoltà di dirimere in modo netto l’identità di soggetti non sempre classificabili in termini di appartenenza esclusiva.
L’élite degli stranieri. Una città di porto nella seconda metà del Settecento: il caso di Livorno
AGLIETTI, MARCELLA
2016-01-01
Abstract
The foreign elite. A port city in the second half of the 18th century: the case of Tuscany's The article examines the ways in which elite foreign traders were able to establish themselves as new members of the local oligarchies in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with a focus on the port city of Livorno. The second half of the 18th century witnessed a change within the Grand Duchy’s ruling dynasty that brought with it many radical reforms. The government introduced important new procedures for what concerned the assimilation of foreigners, including legislative measures that often threatened both previously established practice and integration strategies that had been consolidated over decades. Such measures were aimed at re-establishing full state authority, yet they were met with much resistance: on the one hand, there were the local magistracies, which recognized that their cities thrived on the foreigners themselves, and that that was to be defended; on the other hand, there was the difficulty of unequivocally identifying individuals who were not always classifiable as belonging exclusively to any given jurisdiction.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
