Rebirth of a City: Immigration and Trade in Milan, 1630-59

Abstract

In traditional historiography, Milan, like other Italian cities, began to decline in the seventeenth century as its merchants were no longer able to compete with their English, Dutch, and French counterparts. Urban manufacturers virtually collapsed and only the countryside showed signs of vitality. The A. reconsiders this conventional picture of seventeenth-century Lombardy, highlighting new evidence that portrays Milan as surprisingly resilient, particularly because of its role as a commercial center and its power of attraction on the region's migratory flows. Certainly the plague of 1630 and the recurrence of military operations on Lombard soil until 1659 brought hardship and dislocation in their wake; nonetheless, as an industrial and trade center, Milan held its own, and, after the middle of the century, was able to supply capital, market networks, and skilled labor for recovering rural industries.